The Price Of Freedom
by Bill K
Summary: A Neo-Sailor Moon adventure; Hotaru's recurring dream turns out to be a call for help from across the galaxy.
1. The Mysterious Dream

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part One: "The Mysterious Dream"  
  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic  
  
By Bill K.  
  
-------------------------------------------------  
  
Sailor Moon and all related characters are (c)2004 by Naoko Takeuchi/Kodansha and Toei Animation and are used without permission, but with respect. Story is (c)2004 by Bill Kropfhauser.  
  
As always, for those only familiar with the English dub:  
  
Usagi/Queen Serenity=Serena  
  
Ami=Amy  
  
Rei=Raye  
  
Makoto=Lita  
  
Minako=Mina  
  
Haruka=Amara  
  
Michiru=Michelle  
  
Setsuna=Trista  
  
Mamoru/King Endymion=Darien  
  
Chibi-Usa/Usa=Rini  
  
Finally, Haruka and Michiru are NOT cousins.  
  
--------------------------------------------------  
  
She wasn't alone. Everywhere around her were faceless shadows of people huddled in misery. All around her was a sea of degradation, degradation so thick it seemed to smother her. Why was she here? Why did they suffer so?  
  
Hotaru took a step toward one of the suffering, then another and another. For some strange reason she couldn't get any closer. Stopping, she reached out with her hand, but the wretch was tantalizingly beyond her grasp.  
  
"Who are you?" she heard herself ask. The wretch ignored her question, absorbed by its own misery. "What's happening here? Who's doing this?"  
  
None of the huddled shadows acknowledged she had even spoken. Confused, Hotaru continued on. Everywhere she looked were more of the things. Some seemed almost human while others weren't even close. She surveyed the room without even being sure it was a room. Everything was so dimly lit, so oppressively drab and spartan, that nothing seemed to register with any familiarity. Hotaru had no idea how she got here, nor why she was here.  
  
Then something, a sound or a movement or just a feeling, caught her attention to her left. She spun and saw something, a black shape that was almost familiar, but not quite. She wanted to reach out, but suddenly realized she held her glaive. Why would she have her glaive as Hotaru? But further inspection told her she was wearing her Sailor Saturn fuku. When had she transformed? The question was lost when the shape shifted in front of her.  
  
"Who are you?" Saturn asked, reaching out to the dark shape. It seemed fairly human, and so annoyingly familiar. "Did you bring me here?"  
  
The shape just looked at her without speaking, without moving. Her white glove, phosphorescent against the gloom, came nearer. The shape didn't shy, barely acknowledged her presence. It was human - - once. If she could just see who it was, Saturn felt she'd have her answers. Her hand neared the mysterious person's shoulder. The person didn't move. Her hand gently closed around the shoulder.  
  
Instantly Saturn felt herself sink into the floor up to her ankles. Looking down with alarm, she saw the floor had become soft like melted chocolate. But only moments later the floor hardened again, locking around her feet and ankles in a vise of solid rock. Saturn didn't even have time to struggle. Instantly she felt some threat looming over her. She just had time to look up.  
  
Hotaru felt her pillow on the back of her head. Disoriented, her heart still racing in her tiny chest, the girl looked around. Through the long shadows of the darkness, she recognized furnishings that were part of her room. Was she back in her room?  
  
"Time?" she whispered breathlessly.  
  
"The time is one forty-four and thirteen seconds," the computerized room monitor replied.  
  
"Where did it go?" she whispered to herself.  
  
"Non-linear query," replied the computer. "Please restate your question."  
  
Ignoring the computer, Hotaru rolled over. She was in bed. It was her room. She was in her pajamas, not her Sailor Saturn fuku. The only trace of what happened was her heart still hammering in her chest and the disorienting confusion in her mind.  
  
"I had it again," she whispered.  
  
* * * *  
  
The queen lay in her bed, covers drawn over her and her pillow covering the wet spot where she'd drooled during the night. She lay on her stomach, arms curled beneath her and face buried as far into the pillow as she could and still breathe.  
  
"Serenity," Endymion sighed. "Get up." How many centuries had they gone through this?  
  
"Dnn wnnngh," came the queen's voice from somewhere inside the pillow.  
  
Smirking to himself, Endymion walked over to the side of the bed his wife lay on and swatted her across the bottom.  
  
"OW!" she wailed melodramatically. "That hurt!"  
  
"It's what bad girls get when they don't get up," Endymion replied. "Now please get up."  
  
"No," Serenity pouted, then grew coquettish. "You come in with me. We can cuddle."  
  
"Why do I have to go through this every morning with you? Your breakfast is ready."  
  
"It'll keep," Serenity grunted and buried her head into the pillow again.  
  
"Get up or I'll get Luna to swat you," her husband threatened.  
  
Serenity replied with a frustrated growl and reluctantly climbed up to a sitting position on the side of the bed.  
  
"I hate mornings," she groused. Turning, she gently patted her mattress. "Stay warm, dear friend. We'll be together again soon."  
  
Endymion shook his head, but couldn't hide his smile.  
  
When his wife was in some semblance of order, Endymion escorted her out to the private dining chambers. They were just in time to see their daughter speeding for the door.  
  
"You're not going to have breakfast?" Endymion asked.  
  
"I'll eat in the dining hall," Usa replied, her twin tails of pink hair streaming behind her. She wore a form-hugging blue bodysuit of breathing polymer and a retro twentieth century brown bomber jacket made of artificial leather.  
  
"Honey, why can't you eat breakfast with us just once?" whined Serenity.  
  
"Mom!" Usa fumed dramatically. "I want to be with my FRIENDS!"  
  
"They're more important than us?" Serenity asked.  
  
Usa let out a grunt of frustration.  
  
"Oh, go ahead," Serenity fussed.  
  
"Mom, stop with the guilt!" Usa grumbled, then disappeared out the door.  
  
"Brat," muttered Serenity.  
  
In the dining hall, Usa spotted three of the Amazons at one table. As usual, Palla-Palla was parked in front of a big bowl of frosted cereal while the others were dining more sensibly. Usa remembered all the effort Makoto and Ami wasted trying to convince Palla-Palla that high sugar cereal wasn't good for her. When they would explain it to her, Palla-Palla would smile and nod and the minute they left she would continue eating. When she came up for air, Palla-Palla spotted her approach.  
  
"Good morning, Princess!" she beamed happily.  
  
"Why are you so chipper EVERY morning?" Usa grimaced.  
  
"Because the nice lady on the holo-vid told Palla-Palla it was a good morning and Palla-Palla believes her!"  
  
"The one from 'Yumi-chan's Toyshop'?" Usa asked. Cere-Cere and Jun-Jun nodded in indulgent unison. "You do know she's CGI, don't you?"  
  
Palla-Palla just gave her a vacant grin, then went back to eating.  
  
"That's a good look," Cere-Cere marveled as she noticed Usa's ensemble.   
  
"You like it?" Usa asked. "The jacket's kind of hot, but it does look cool."  
  
"You look like an utter action girl," Cere-Cere confirmed.  
  
"Thanks." Usa looked harder at Cere-Cere. "Is that makeup?"  
  
"Just a little crushed pseudo-emerald eye shadow and some liquid polymer lip gloss," Cere-Cere shrugged. "No big." She seemed to tense slightly. "It does look good, doesn't it?"  
  
"Very flashy. I'm beginning to wonder if there's anything you can't look good in."  
  
"Tell me about it. It's very easy to hate her," Jun-Jun quipped. Her sister Amazon smirked proudly.  
  
Ves-Ves approached with her tray, avoiding eye contact with everyone in the dining hall. Trying to call as little attention to herself as possible, the girl took a seat at the table as far away from Usa as she could manage. The memory of her attack on Sailor Moon in the nightmare realm adjacent to Elysian was still fresh in everyone's mind, particularly hers.  
  
"Good morning, Ves-Ves," Usa said hopefully.  
  
"Good morning, Princess," Ves-Ves whispered, keeping her gaze on her food.  
  
Usa looked to the others, appealing silently to them to somehow fix this situation. Cere-Cere and Jun-Jun looked back at her helplessly.  
  
"Good morning, Palla-Palla," Ves-Ves said suddenly. Cere-Cere raised an eyebrow, then whirled on the blue-haired girl.  
  
"Would you stop thought-casting!" Cere-Cere fumed.  
  
"You're just jealous because Palla-Palla can't do it with you yet," the girl replied smugly between bites of cereal.  
  
"Baby," grumbled Cere-Cere.  
  
"Hey, Hotaru," Usa waved. Hotaru approached and sat down between Usa and Ves-Ves. "You don't look so hot. Is something wrong?"  
  
"I didn't sleep much last night," Hotaru revealed reluctantly.  
  
"Did you have that dream again?" Jun-Jun asked.  
  
Hotaru nodded. "I wish I knew why."  
  
"Recurring dreams are usually your body trying to tell you something," Jun-Jun said.   
  
"Or it might be some sort of psychic impression," Cere-Cere offered. "That's what Sensei Hino-sama says. You should hear her talk about dreams and dream-interpretation. I swear she knows EVERYTHING!"  
  
"Maybe that's it," Usa told her. "You've always been receptive to that sort of stuff. Maybe Rei-san can help you sort it out."  
  
"Maybe I'll ask her," Hotaru said.  
  
The girls felt the presence of a boy approach. All heads turned except for Palla-Palla and Ves-Ves. They found the angular Yutaka standing there, a hopeful look on his baby face. Yutaka was the fifteen-year-old son of a palace maintenance officer and lived in the palace with his family in quarters the king and queen provided to the families of all staff members.  
  
"Hi, Hotaru," he smiled, ignoring the others.  
  
"Hi, Y-Yutaka," Hotaru replied, shrinking into herself.  
  
"Um, I was wondering if you were free tonight," he ventured. "The Synthozoids are playing at the entertainment hub. Would you like to go?"  
  
"I'm not really familiar with that group," Hotaru said, barely audible.  
  
"Oh," Yutaka said, crestfallen.  
  
Usa gave Hotaru a subtle nudge.  
  
"But this would be a good way to, um, learn about them," Hotaru added.  
  
"Then you'll go?" Yutaka asked excitedly.  
  
"I guess so," Hotaru replied, smiling timidly. "When should I meet you?"  
  
"I'll pick you up!" he exclaimed. "Nineteen hundred. Maybe we can get something to eat after?"  
  
"Sure," Hotaru nodded.  
  
Yutaka nodded back. He was so happy it took him several beats to realize the deal was done and he could leave. With an awkward nod to the others, he departed. Instantly they all turned on Hotaru.  
  
"You are SUCH a smooth operator," Usa said sarcastically.  
  
"Oh, shut up, Usa," Hotaru grumbled, flushing with embarrassment.  
  
"Honest, girl, we've GOT to work on your self-confidence," Cere-Cere said, shaking her head.  
  
"Leave her alone, you vulture," Jun-Jun said. Then her eyes narrowed and she grew a wicked smile. "After all, 'YUTAKA' likes her just the way she is."  
  
Hotaru felt her cheeks burn even hotter.  
  
* * * *  
  
Thirteen hundred hours - - normally Ves-Ves would be headed to self-defense class. But not anymore; now she had sessions three times a week with Sensei Mizuno-sama.   
  
Not that she didn't enjoy Sensei Mizuno-sama. The woman was very sympathetic and very gentle. Ves-Ves had been afraid the woman would be harsh or judgmental, given what she'd done. But she genuinely wanted to help and it was something Ves-Ves appreciated.   
  
However, Ves-Ves enjoyed self-defense class. She enjoyed the contact. She enjoyed the competition. She enjoyed winning, because she usually did. And she enjoyed learning new moves and new tricks from Sensei Kino-sama and Sensei Aino-sama - - especially Sensei Aino-sama. The woman was everything Ves-Ves wanted to be: beautiful, multi-talented and possessing a self-assured demeanor that told the world "here I am - - accept me or it's your loss". To her, Sensei Aino-sama was a god.  
  
But Sensei Aino-sama no longer trusted Ves-Ves to be in her self-defense class. And she was so cold now. Ves-Ves knew she had screwed up. She knew. That's why she was going to Sensei Mizuno-sama. It's not like she enjoyed ripping open her soul and letting someone examine her deepest secrets and oldest wounds. Ves-Ves knew she had to, though, to pay for what she'd done and to keep it from ever happening again. She was so very sorry for what had happened. Why couldn't Sensei Aino-sama see that?  
  
"Hello, Ves-Ves," Ami smiled as she ushered the girl into her office in the palace.  
  
Ves-Ves nodded and took her seat. By now knowing the process by heart, the girl eased the sensor halo over her head and grasped the armrests where the biological telemetry sensors were embedded. She always felt like a lab animal when she sat in this chair, but she dismissed the thought. She was no longer permitted objections of vanity.  
  
"You seem quite glum today," Ami remarked. "Is anything wrong?"  
  
Knowing her biological and encephalic telemetry was already recording, Ves-Ves felt she had no choice but to tell the truth.  
  
"Just thinking about how bad I've screwed my life up," Ves-Ves mumbled.  
  
"It's understandable to feel guilt over what happened," Ami told her. "But you're working to correct it. That's all anyone can ask. You shouldn't obsess on your past guilt, though. Accept that you did wrong, be grateful that no one was hurt and strive to do better. Don't you think that's a more constructive attitude?"  
  
"I wish it was that easy. I feel so bad about what I did! It's not easy to put that behind you. And even if I could, there's plenty of other people around here ready to remind me."  
  
"Well you have to look at it from Usa's perspective," Ami told her as she monitored her patient's vital signs and scribbled notes on a personal notepad computer with a light stylus. "Having a brush with imminent death can be traumatic, particularly if it's at the hands of someone you trust."  
  
"Hell, the Princess is the least of my worries!" Ves-Ves snapped. Instantly she caught herself and shrank back. Ami noted the change in the readouts. "Sorry for swearing. But she's already forgiven me!"  
  
"Then who is giving you problems?"  
  
"Well," Ves-Ves began, reluctant to continue, "the staff, for one. They act like I'm a wild animal or something. I feel them staring at me when I walk down a corridor or eat in the dining hall. And they're so stiff and formal around me, like they're scared I'll go off if they speak to me wrong." She sniffed. "And Sensei Hino-sama acts like I'm Neherenia, Beryl and Galaxia rolled into one. But at least she's up front about not liking me. It's . . ."  
  
"Go on."  
  
Ves-Ves sighed in frustration. "I know I let Sensei Aino-sama down. I wish I could take it all back! I wish I could make it disappear! I want her to know how sorry I am! But she's so distant now. I know I disappointed her." Ves-Ves squeezed the armrests until the veins popped out in her hands. "I want to make it like it was, but I don't know how!"  
  
Ves-Ves paused to wipe away the tears in her eyes.  
  
"Sensei Kino-sama always told us that what we do will always follow us. I never knew what she meant until now."  
  
"Well, Makoto is right," Ami said, keeping her voice non-judgmental. "There's no way to undo the past. And people are never going to forget what you did. But your current reputation isn't set in stone, Ves-Ves. What you do from this point on will always follow you, too. People will be wary of you until they're sure they can trust you again. If you work hard and continue to show them you're determined to be worthy of their trust, most people will come around. People want to forgive. You just have to give them an opportunity. It won't be quick and it won't be easy. But it can be done."  
  
"I don't know if I can," Ves-Ves whispered, looking at her lap. "Sometimes I get so frustrated that I just want to punch the first person that gives me that nervous fish eye look."  
  
"But that's why we're here, isn't it?" Ami said.  
  
"Yeah," Ves-Ves replied glumly.  
  
"Did your father ever strike you?"  
  
"Dad? A few times; he usually saved himself for Mom."  
  
"How did you feel when he struck you?"  
  
I don't want to do this, Ves-Ves thought. Ami noted the change in vital sign readings.  
  
* * * *  
  
She wasn't alone. Everywhere around her were faceless shadows of people huddled in misery. All around her was a sea of degradation, degradation so thick it seemed to smother her. Why was she here? Why did they suffer so?  
  
She took a step toward one of the suffering, then another and another. For some strange reason she couldn't get any closer. Stopping, she reached out with her hand, but the wretch was tantalizingly beyond her grasp.  
  
"Who are you?" she heard herself ask. The wretch ignored her question, absorbed by its own misery. "What's happening here? Who's doing this?"  
  
None of the huddled shadows acknowledged she had even spoken. Confused, she continued on. Everywhere she looked were more of the things. Some seemed almost human while others weren't even close. She surveyed the room without even being sure it was a room. Everything was so dimly lit, so oppressively drab and spartan, that nothing seemed to register with any familiarity. She had no idea how she got here, nor why she was here.  
  
Then something, a sound or a movement or just a feeling, caught her attention to her left. She spun and saw something, a black shape that was almost familiar, but not quite. She started to reach for it, then noticed she was dressed in her fuku. When had she transformed?  
  
"Who are you?" she asked, reaching out to the dark shape. It seemed fairly human, and so annoyingly familiar. "Did you bring me here?"  
  
The shape just looked at her without speaking, without moving. Her white glove, phosphorescent against the gloom, came nearer. The shape didn't shy, barely acknowledged her presence. It was human - - once. If she could just see who it was, she felt she'd have her answers. Her hand neared the mysterious person's shoulder. The person didn't move. Her hand gently closed around the shoulder.  
  
Instantly she felt herself sink into the floor up to her ankles. Looking down with alarm, she saw the floor had become soft like melted chocolate. But only moments later the floor hardened again, locking around her feet and ankles in a vise of solid rock. She didn't even have time to struggle. Instantly she felt some threat looming over her. She just had time to look up.  
  
Her eye opened. She was where she'd been when she closed her eyes, in her bed in her room. Aware of the trip-hammer beat of her heart and the way her thoughts raced from being goosed with adrenaline, she struggled out from under the sheet and propped up on her elbows.  
  
"That had to be a premonition," Rei thought. "But of what?"  
  
continued in Chapter 2 


	2. The Strange Connection

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part Two: "The Strange Connection"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
Usa buzzed through the parlor toward the door, anxious to meet Hotaru and the others for breakfast. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed her mother sitting at the table, an odd occurrence this early in the morning. Cringing inwardly for a moment, Usa prepared herself for another in her daily dose of guilt. When it didn't come, the pink-haired princess allowed herself to breathe. Maybe her mother was done with trying to run her life.  
  
Yeah, right.  
  
"I'm headed over to the dining hall," Usa announced, turning to her mother as the door hissed open ahead of her. This allowed her to focus on her mother for the first time. "Mom? Are you OK?"  
  
Queen Serenity was sitting in a chair, a cup of tea held to her lips with both hands. Her golden blonde hair flowed loosely over her shoulders and down her back to the floor rather than being done up in her trademark odangos. She still wore her nightgown, a sheer thing that would have made Usa cringe under normal circumstances. Dark circles were under her eyes. She turned to her daughter and managed a weak smile.  
  
"I'm all right, dear," Serenity replied. At least her voice was strong.  
  
"Are you sure? You don't look so hot."  
  
"I just had some trouble sleeping," the queen replied. When it was clear this didn't satisfy her daughter, Serenity explained further. "One of the - - prices - - of having the power and awareness I have is sometimes it's difficult to shut it off. When something happens somewhere that emits - - well, Ami or Rei could explain it better, but it's like I can sense when something very terrible is happening somewhere."  
  
"Somewhere in Crystal Tokyo?" Usa asked.  
  
"Somewhere in the universe," the queen replied.  
  
"Really? Yuck!"  
  
"Your father is off troubling Ami over this. I told him it would pass, but bless his heart, he doesn't like to see me suffer even a little bit."  
  
"It's looks more than a little bit," Usa whispered. "Do you want me to stay?"  
  
Serenity got up and with a fatigued gait walked over and kissed her daughter on the forehead.  
  
"That's sweet of you, honey, but it's not necessary," Serenity smiled. "It'll pass and I'll be fine. Go be with your friends."  
  
"You're sure?" Usa asked. Serenity nodded and Usa exited.  
  
In the dining hall, she spotted three of the four Asteroid Senshi having breakfast. As she took her usual seat, she noticed Cere-Cere and Jun-Jun watching Palla-Palla cautiously. A quip formed in her mind, but it died a quick death when she got a look at the lines under Palla-Palla's eyes.  
  
"Palla-Palla?" Usa asked.  
  
"Good morning, Princess," Palla-Palla said between bites of her favorite sugary cereal. There was little of the vigor she usually possessed.  
  
"What's wrong?" Usa asked the others.  
  
"She didn't sleep too well," Jun-Jun informed her. "Woke us up about four this morning crying."  
  
"Palla-Palla's sorry," she mumbled.  
  
"You too?" Usa remarked, garnering curious looks from the others. "Mom was up most of the night, too. Did you have a nightmare or something?"  
  
Palla-Palla shook her head slowly. "All of a sudden Palla-Palla just felt so sad and hopeless. She still kind of feels that way, but she's getting better. She really doesn't understand it, though." The girl chewed another spoonful of cereal. "And there was a word she kept hearing: Ravenheim."  
  
"Ravenheim?" Usa repeated.  
  
"We don't know what it means, either," Cere-Cere said. "Jun-Jun even consulted the palace database and didn't come up with anything."  
  
Just then Ves-Ves approached the table and sat down as far away from Usa as she could. Usa glanced at her and she seemed as glum as ever.  
  
"Glad you could make it," needled Cere-Cere.  
  
"Sorry," Ves-Ves whispered.  
  
"Would you stop apologizing for everything you do! It's getting old!" Cere-Cere snapped.  
  
"Sorry," Ves-Ves whispered.  
  
"Ves," Jun-Jun inquired. "You look kind of zonked."  
  
"Palla-Palla's sorry if she woke you," Palla-Palla said contritely.  
  
"Y-You didn't," Ves-Ves said and Usa noticed there were circles under her eyes, too. "I was - - already up."  
  
"What is this, an epidemic?" Usa gasped. "Am I the only one who can sleep around here?"  
  
"Did you have a bad dream?" Jun-Jun asked.  
  
"Must have," Ves-Ves shrugged. "Can't remember anything about it, though. But I seemed pretty startled when I woke up."  
  
"I wonder if Hotaru had her dream again," Usa wondered.  
  
They didn't have long to wonder. When Hotaru came up with her meal, the strain on her face was evident.  
  
"You had that dream again, didn't you?" Usa asked her and Hotaru didn't have the strength to lie.   
  
"It's like someone's reaching out to me," Hotaru said. "They're in such misery that I want to help them - - but every time I do, it's like they're just bait for a trap that snaps shut on me."  
  
"Hotaru, you need to talk to Rei-san or Ami-san," Usa told her. "This is beginning to take a toll on you. I'm worried."  
  
"I'll go see Hino-san after classes," Hotaru said, then glanced at Usa and saw her intent look. "Promise."  
  
"Want me to walk you there?"  
  
"I know the way," Hotaru smiled.  
  
Conversation drifted onto more mundane subjects as the six girls finished eating. One by one they headed off to class until only two were left. Cere-Cere waited patiently as Palla-Palla took longer than usual to finish. Finally she was done and Cere-Cere picked up their plates.  
  
"Ravenheim," Palla-Palla whispered.  
  
"Yeah, you said that was the word you heard in your sleep."  
  
"No," Palla-Palla said and grew more animated. "Palla-Palla wasn't concentrating. It was a thought she heard from Miss Hotaru Ma'am just now."  
  
"You're sure?" Cere-Cere asked. Palla-Palla nodded solemnly. "How would she know that word?"  
  
* * * *  
  
It had taken longer than she'd expected to get rid of Endymion. Ami was always reluctant to provide medical treatment or drugs to someone she hadn't examined. If she hadn't gone through this before with Serenity, she wouldn't have done it now. The fact that she was familiar with Serenity's ability to sense sorrow from any corner of the universe allowed her to give Endymion an analgesic for her and shoo him out of her office.  
  
Makoto had the students today, so she knew Minako was free. Ami hurried down the hall, trying to catch the woman before she was off on another quest to satisfy her need for new and interesting life experiences. She arrived at the door and allowed the door control to scan her. Several minutes later Minako opened the door.  
  
"Did I wake you?" Ami innocently asked the drowsy woman dressed in a scandalously small nightie. "Oh that's right, I forgot. You don't get up until ten unless it's a school day."  
  
"I'd be more inclined to believe that if I didn't know you don't forget anything," grumbled Minako, combing the hair out of her face with her hand.  
  
"Oh, you're right. I don't," Ami replied with a cheshire grin. Minako cocked an eyebrow, but ushered her in.  
  
"What's up that couldn't wait until morning?" Minako asked, flopping onto a chair, the hem of her nightie hiked dangerously high on her thigh.  
  
"It is morning," Ami replied uncomfortably, averting her gaze. "If you'd like to put on a robe, I can wait."  
  
"I don't mind," Minako smirked, exacting her revenge.  
  
"Very well. First off, I just want you to know that I don't make it a habit of showing vids of my sessions with patients to people who aren't doctors. It's a serious violation of ethics." This got Minako's attention and she sobered. "But I think you should hear this."  
  
Ami plugged a thin crystal that was four inches long and a half-inch in diameter into a crystal reader on a nearby table. The pointed end of the crystal linked with the circuitry. After Ami selected the proper file, the reader engaged and a picture of Ves-Ves sitting in a bio-monitor chair came up.  
  
["Just thinking about how bad I've screwed my life up," Ves-Ves mumbled.  
  
"It's understandable to feel guilt over what happened," Ami told her. "But you're working to correct it. That's all anyone can ask. You shouldn't obsess on your past guilt, though. Accept that you did wrong, be grateful that no one was hurt and strive to do better. Don't you think that's a more constructive attitude?"  
  
"I wish it was that easy. I feel so bad about what I did! It's not easy to put that behind you. And even if I could, there's plenty of other people around here ready to remind me."  
  
"Well you have to look at it from Usa's perspective," Ami told her. "Having a brush with imminent death can be traumatic, particularly if it's at the hands of someone you trust."  
  
"Hell, the Princess is the least of my worries!" Ves-Ves snapped. Instantly she caught herself and shrank back. "Sorry for swearing. But she's already forgiven me!"  
  
"Then who is giving you problems?"  
  
"Well," Ves-Ves began, reluctant to continue, "the staff, for one. They act like I'm a wild animal or something. I feel them staring at me when I walk down the hall or eat in the dining hall. And they're so stiff and formal around me, like they're scared I'll go off if they speak to me wrong." She sniffed. "And Sensei Hino-sama acts like I'm Neherenia, Beryl and Galaxia rolled into one. But at least she's up front about not liking me. It's . . ."  
  
"Go on."  
  
"I know I let Sensei Aino-sama down. I wish I could take it all back! I wish I could make it disappear! I want her to know how sorry I am! But she's so distant now. I know I disappointed her." Ves-Ves squeezed the armrests until the veins popped out in her hands. "I want to make it like it was, but I don't know how!"]  
  
Ami had watched Minako's face the entire time. She'd seen it change from interested to a mask of indifference and then to one of guilt. When the scene of Ves-Ves wiping tears from her eyes played, Ami stopped the playback.  
  
"Poor kid," Minako whispered hoarsely.  
  
"Don't you think you'd be a better help to her by working with her instead of freezing her out?" Ami asked. Minako bowed her head.  
  
"It's just," Minako began. "I believed in her. And then she pulled something like this. How am I supposed to trust her again?"  
  
"It's a leap of faith, I admit," Ami replied. "But does a good teacher give up on a student after one mistake?"  
  
"You make it sound like she got a wrong answer on an exam," Minako grumbled. "She could have killed Usa. That's not just 'a mistake'."  
  
"And afterwards she recognized her problem and sought help for it. Hardly the act of someone irresponsible or with criminal tendencies."  
  
"It's not something you just forgive that easily."  
  
"Is it your place to punish her beyond what the King and Queen mandated?" Ami asked. "Or are you punishing her because she proved you wrong and that's wounded your pride?"  
  
Minako glared at Ami.  
  
"Ves-Ves is at a very vulnerable point in her life. She's in an emotional crisis and needs all the support she can get. And she needs you most of all, Minako. You're the person she looks up to the most. She's too proud and stubborn to come out and say it because she sees that as a sign of weakness and her whole life has taught her that it's dangerous to be weak. But she does desperately need you, Minako."  
  
"You don't understand," Minako told her. "I've seen her type before. They tell you they're going straight, that they want to make good, that they'll do their best. Then they revert to type the first weak moment they have. And you're the one left behind to pick up the pieces."  
  
"Minako, she's not Ace."  
  
"How do you know?" Minako demanded. Ami didn't respond, but it was clear she hadn't backed away from her position. Minako sighed in frustration. "OK, I'll try. Maybe I have been a little too hard on the kid. After all, I did my share of stupid things at fifteen." She looked back up at Ami with a hardened gaze. "But I'm still keeping my hand on my wallet around her."  
  
"I understand she has to rebuild your trust in her," Ami smiled. "She understands it, too. She's only asking for a chance, Minako."  
  
"I'll try," Minako sighed.  
  
* * * *  
  
Rei wandered the floor of the shrine in her priestess robes, checking to see if there were any worshippers that needed help. It had been a light day. Cere-Cere had been in earlier, but she'd been more interested in getting a fashion critique than in worshipping. Turning a corner, she found Hotaru praying. She silently observed as the girl finished her prayer, then rang the bell above her. When she turned, Rei walked up.  
  
"Hi, Hotaru," Rei smiled. Then she grew serious. "You don't look so good. Are you feeling all right?"  
  
"I haven't been sleeping," Hotaru admitted. "I keep having this disturbing dream. Usa suggested I talk to you about it, Hino-sensei."  
  
"All right. Come in and sit down. I'll make us some tea."  
  
Hotaru sipped the tea and tried not to be nervous around Rei. The priest was staring at her intently. She knew the woman was reading her, taking in surface impressions and the shape and color of her aura. But Rei's stare always made her nervous, like the woman was looking directly into her soul.  
  
"How much of this dream do you remember?" Rei asked.  
  
"I remember it's dark," Hotaru recounted. "There's a lot of people crowded together. They're all miserable. Conditions are bad and they're all so hopeless. And one of them is reaching out to me. There's something familiar about the person, but I can't figure out what."  
  
Hackles began to rise on the back of Rei's neck. Hotaru was describing exactly what Rei had dreamed the previous night.  
  
"Then somehow I'm suddenly Sailor Saturn," Hotaru continued. "I reach out to one of them, trying to ask them what's going on. But the moment I touch them, it's like this trap springs and catches me."  
  
As she listened, Rei became more and more unsettled by what she was hearing. Hotaru continued and Rei studied her the entire time.  
  
"And there's this word," Hotaru added. "I don't remember if I saw it or heard it or what, but it sticks in my mind. Ravenheim."  
  
That was new. But it seemed to tickle something in Rei's mind.  
  
"How long have you had this dream?" Rei asked.  
  
"Four nights in a row. Each time it's a little longer and a little more clear - - and a lot scarier. Is it a premonition?"  
  
"Yes," Rei said. "Someone close to you is in dire straits. You're picking up on their anguish through your heightened sight and your close ties to them. However, they're also warning you of the danger should you try to help them. That's the trap sensation you get at the end of the dream. That word you remembered - - Ravenheim - - it's important, too. I just don't know how. But I'll investigate." She grasped Hotaru's hands. "Don't be afraid to go to sleep tonight. It's just a dream and it won't hurt you. If you get any new details, please tell me."  
  
"I will," Hotaru nodded. She looked very relieved. "Thank you so much, Hino-sensei."  
  
"It's all right," Rei said, thinking back to her own dream. "I got a lot of benefit out of it, too."  
  
* * * *  
  
Dressed in her finest outfit, Hotaru sighed with contentment after waving good-bye to Yutaka. What a night. If only there'd been a good night kiss, it would have been perfect. If she only had more courage and confidence, she would have kissed him, for she suddenly longed to know what his lips felt like. But she didn't want to seem forward. Turning the corner, headed for her quarters, she ran into Usa. Usa was clearly waiting for her.  
  
"Whoa! Dressed to kill!" teased Usa.  
  
"What do you want?" Hotaru huffed in playful indignation.  
  
"Juicy details, what else?" Usa grinned. "From the look on your face, Yutaka obviously enchanted you."  
  
"He's very nice," Hotaru sighed.  
  
"Did you hold hands?"  
  
Hotaru nodded with a self-conscious grin.  
  
"Did he kiss you?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because he's too kind and respectful to force himself on me," Hotaru said proudly.  
  
"Then you should have kissed him," smirked Usa.  
  
"I didn't want to scare him away," Hotaru frowned.  
  
"Any guy who'd be scared away by a pretty girl kissing him deserves to be scared away," Usa proclaimed.   
  
"U-saaaaaaa!" fussed Hotaru.  
  
"So, come on, dish! Unless you want to do it in your room."  
  
"I'll tell you tomorrow," Hotaru said. "It's late and I've got to get to sleep. We've got school tomorrow, remember?"  
  
"How do you expect me to wait that long?" howled Usa.  
  
"I had a nice time. Yutaka's very sweet and if he asks me out again I'll say yes - - on my own this time."  
  
"See, I told you," Usa smiled, wagging a finger at her. "Repeat after me: 'Princess knows best'."  
  
"Princess knows best," Hotaru repeated, rolling her eyes. "Good night, Usa."  
  
"Don't have too many naughty dreams about him," Usa teased. Hotaru flushed furiously.  
  
* * * *  
  
Rei's eyes snapped open. She'd had the dream again and once again it was just as Hotaru had described it. Beings in utter misery reaching out to her, and yet it wasn't her they were reaching out to. And the buzzing in the back of her brain was enough of a warning to get her into action. Her eyes still adjusting to the dark, Rei got out of bed and put on her priest's robes.  
  
She ventured out into the halls of the palace and up the steps, headed for Hotaru's quarters. Along the way, Serenity met her, clad in a robe and her hair still down.  
  
"Did you feel it?" Serenity asked.  
  
"An impression of misery and despair strong enough to wake you up?" Rei asked. Serenity nodded. "I got more than that. I got an entire dream - - and it's just like the one Hotaru's had for several nights in a row."  
  
"Oh my!" gasped Serenity. She followed Rei down the hall. Without glancing back, they both felt Endymion hot on their heels. He must have sensed Serenity's distress.  
  
Their mission was interrupted, though, when Cere-Cere stopped them in the hall.  
  
"Please, can you help us?" Cere-Cere pleaded. "It's Palla-Palla!"  
  
Instantly Serenity entered the quarters and headed for Palla-Palla's room. There they found Jun-Jun desperately trying to console Palla-Palla, while the blue-haired girl wailed like a soul in torment. With Endymion watching, Serenity sank to her knees next to Palla-Palla and enveloped the girl in her arms.  
  
"Please don't cry so, Palla-Palla," the queen said gently, comforting the girl both physically and psychically. "Everything's all right. What happened?"  
  
Palla-Palla was hiccuping with sobs and couldn't speak initially. Jun-Jun and Cere-Cere watched from the side with mounting terror in their hearts. A moment later Ves-Ves wandered in and Endymion noticed a haunted look on her face.  
  
"Dream," Palla-Palla gulped out finally. "Scary!"  
  
"It's all right now," Serenity cooed. "You just had a bad dream. You're safe now."  
  
Palla-Palla shook her head. "Miss Hotaru-ma'am," she squeaked. "Her dream." Serenity and Endymion exchanged surprised looks.  
  
"She must have read Hotaru's dream in her sleep," Endymion concluded.  
  
"Maybe it wasn't just her," Serenity offered. "Rei woke up with the same dream Hotaru's been having, and the impressions of it woke me up."  
  
"And Palla-Palla must have thought-cast it to me, too," Ves-Ves mumbled. "What a horrible place to dream about. And I kept hearing this name."  
  
"Ravenheim," Palla-Palla nodded tearfully.  
  
Rei appeared in the room. Hotaru was with her and the girl was white as a sheet. Serenity could instantly sense her distress, while Palla-Palla began to cry harder.  
  
"I had the dream again," Hotaru whispered.  
  
"I think it was so intense this time that Hotaru unconsciously transmitted it to the more perceptive people in the palace," Rei concluded.  
  
"What is this dream?" Serenity asked anxiously. "Is it a premonition or a message of some kind? And if it is, where is it coming from?"  
  
"I know," Hotaru said, her eyes staring in shock and her mood deeply anxious. "I know where the dream is coming from. It's Michiru-mama. She's in trouble."  
  
Continued in chapter 3. 


	3. The Rescue Mission

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part Three: "The Rescue Mission"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
"But Michiru-mama is in trouble!" cried Hotaru to anyone who'd listen. "That means Haruka-papa is probably in trouble, too! We have to help them!"  
  
King Endymion, Queen Serenity and the original senshi looked at her sympathetically. But she already knew she was arguing to no avail.  
  
"We understand the need for swift action, Hotaru," Ami told her. "We're working as fast as we can. But we must pinpoint where they are first before we can help them."  
  
"I know where they are!" Hotaru protested. "Ravenheim!"  
  
"Is it a city, Hotaru?" Endymion asked. "Is it a state, a country, a planet? If so, where is this planet?" Hotaru looked at him helplessly. "You don't know, do you. That's why we have to find it first."  
  
"I don't know the technical space coordinates or anything scientific, but I can lead us there! I can!"  
  
"Assuming that's true, what are we going to find there?" Minako asked her point blank.   
  
Hotaru looked down in frustration. She felt Makoto's hand on her shoulder.  
  
"We know you want to help them," Makoto told her in a soothing voice. "So do we. But we're not going to be any help to them if we go charging in and wind up in the same predicament they're in. You just have to bear with us until we know where we're going and what we're facing."  
  
Hotaru's face scrunched up with distress. She tore away and bolted from the room.  
  
"Poor Hotaru," Serenity whispered. "If there's any way we can speed this up . . .?"  
  
"I feel for Hotaru as much as you do, Serenity," Ami said.  
  
"It's not just Hotaru," Serenity sniffed. "I want to help them, too - - now!"  
  
Hotaru lay across her bed, crying. The specter of arriving too late and seeing her adoptive parents dead haunted the girl's brain. But what could she do alone?  
  
"The Princess Usagi desires entry," announced the computerized door sensor.  
  
"Let her in," Hotaru squeaked.  
  
Usa entered, flanked by the Amazons. Their sad sympathy was touching, though it didn't dry Hotaru's tears.  
  
"We heard," Usa told her. "They are doing everything they can."  
  
Hotaru just cried harder.  
  
"Miss Hotaru ma'am," Palla-Palla ventured, on the verge of tears herself, "please don't cry. Palla-Palla promises she'll do anything she can to help you find your Mommy and Daddy."  
  
"Thanks," Hotaru whispered. "I'm just so scared it'll be too late. None of you felt her call the way I did. She was so desperate! It might already be too late!"  
  
"Then how about we go look for them?"  
  
Hotaru looked up into Usa's face. She saw the princess was dead serious. It made her that much more grateful that Usa was her best friend.  
  
"The king and queen aren't going to like that," Jun-Jun reminded them. Usa shot her a withering glare. "But that's never stopped you before. So how do we get there?"  
  
"Sailor teleport?" Usa guessed.  
  
"Do we have enough power to travel that far on Sailor teleport?" Cere-Cere asked. "Do we even know where we're going?"  
  
"I'll get us there," Hotaru proclaimed and no one doubted her. "Thank you everyone."  
  
"Um," came a meek voice from the back. Everyone turned to Ves-Ves. "If you'd prefer I didn't go along, I, um, understand."  
  
"Sure you can come along," Usa smiled encouragingly. "If whoever this enemy is got the better of Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, we'll probably need all the power we can get. Besides, you can just pretend the enemy is me."  
  
Ves-Ves looked down, ashamed.  
  
"Please come, Ves-Ves," Palla-Palla pleaded, grasping her hands. "Palla-Palla is going to need you to protect her and help her if she runs into big words."  
  
Tears began to flood the silent girl's eyelids. Unable to speak, Ves-Ves nodded her head, her towering hairstyle shaking to-and-fro. The others saw Palla-Palla beam happily and immediately felt better about their mission.  
  
"All right, let's head down to the gym and transform," Usa told them. "We'll do less damage if we teleport from in there." The five girls nodded resolutely and followed their princess out the door.  
  
A swirl of wind kicked up amid the brush and dirt of a little used wasteland, the whirlwind given form by the foggy conditions on the ground. When it reached an apex of ten feet off the ground, the whirlwind died away, revealing six young girls in sailor fukus. The girls released their grips on each other's hands and looked around.  
  
The landscape was draped in fog. Beneath the fog, the land was harsh. To one side lay a mountainous region with stairways carved into the rock. The stairs connected the mouths of burrows, the side of the mountain a warren of caves containing living beings. To the other side lay four huge metallic pillars. The columns were twenty feet around and stretched up to the sky well beyond what the fog allowed them to see. There was evidence on the nearest column of a door or hatch at ground level. There seemed to be no animal life and any plant life that still existed was stunted and hugged the ground.  
  
"What an utterly miserable place," Cere-Cere mused with distaste. "Why can't we ever get any missions to the beach?"  
  
"How did we do that?" Juno marveled. She turned to Sailor Moon. "Did you manage that? I didn't think any of us were capable of power like that."  
  
Sailor Moon didn't answer - - but she did look at Sailor Saturn curiously. Saturn, embarrassed, avoided her gaze. She began to survey the terrain - - then sank to her knees.  
  
"Saturn!" Sailor Moon gasped, catching the girl as she knelt so she didn't fall onto her back. "You're using too much energy."  
  
"I'll be all right," Saturn sighed, trying to shake the dizziness.  
  
"Saturn did that?" Juno whispered.  
  
"You need to rest," Sailor Moon persisted.   
  
"We need to find Michiru-mama as soon as we can," she mumbled. Ignoring Sailor Moon's curious stare, Saturn reached out with her mind, trying to get some indication of where Michiru Kaioh was. "I think she's over there," the girl said, pointing toward the mountain range.  
  
Ignoring Sailor Moon's baleful stare, Saturn got to unsteady feet and headed out. Falling in behind Saturn, Sailor Moon and the Asteroid Senshi started for the mountain range. They weren't fifty feet, though, when a storm of dust and wind sprang up in front of them. The girls fell back into defensive stances while Sailor Moon summoned the Crescent Moon Wand. A brilliant light was glowing in the midst of the whirlwind and a sixth sense told them whatever was making this was incredibly powerful. The storm seemed to loom over them for a moment, then suddenly died away. The girls were amazed at what they saw.  
  
"What am I going to do with you?" asked a very annoyed Queen Serenity, her arms folded over her chest. Sailor Mercury and Jupiter were on her left, while Sailor Mars and Venus were on her right.  
  
"Oh, man!" groaned Sailor Moon. The Asteroids quickly looked down, except for Pallas. She smiled at the queen, genuinely happy to see her.  
  
"What have I told you about rushing into a situation you don't know anything about?" the queen fumed.  
  
"Please, Your Majesty!" Saturn began.  
  
"And what have I told you about calling me 'Your Majesty'?" Serenity fussed petulantly.  
  
"Please, Queen Serenity, don't blame Sailor Moon or the others," Saturn pleaded. "They were just helping me. It's my fault. I-I couldn't wait! Michiru-mama needs me!"  
  
"And we didn't have time to run it through committee," added Sailor Moon.  
  
"That's enough, young lady," growled Serenity. "Saturn, I do sympathize. We were coming for her."  
  
"It's just if something jumps out at us now, we'll have to wing it," Venus scowled.  
  
"And there's no way of knowing how our incursion on this planet is going to affect the native inhabitants," Mercury explained.  
  
"Well, we're here," Serenity interjected. "I imagine our best course is to find Michiru as quickly and as quietly as possible and get out as soon as possible." She looked to her senshi for their opinion and they all nodded in agreement. Mercury immediately summoned her visor.  
  
"I'm scanning the area," Mercury said. "There are multiple life readings in the caves in that mountain range. Humanoid, but no life forms analogous with Earth. I'm also reading multiple life form activity underground beneath the mountain - - perhaps a mine of some sort."  
  
"Your," Saturn began and noticed Serenity wince, "um, Queen Serenity, I can feel she's near. I think I can lead us to her."  
  
Serenity went blank for a moment. "I feel her, too. All right, Saturn, let's follow you."  
  
"Keep your eyes open," Jupiter warned the Asteroid Senshi as they all followed Saturn. "We don't know what we're dealing with here, so avoiding detection and confrontation is the plan."  
  
As they walked, the girls seemed to unconsciously seek out their favorite elder. While Saturn and Mercury worked in concert at the point, Ceres gravitated toward Mars and Juno edged over to Jupiter. Sailor Moon and the queen suspended hostilities and concentrated on the success of the plan. Pallas sought out Vesta, sticking close to the crimson senshi. Vesta, though, seemed to make an overt effort to keep the entire pack between her and Venus. Venus noticed, but suppressed it for the mission.  
  
"Where's Pop?" Sailor Moon asked as they walked.  
  
"One of us had to stay in Crystal Tokyo," Serenity answered. She spent several tense moments looking for words before finally speaking. "Dear, I wasn't criticizing you for caring. I understand you wanted to help your friend. I think it reflects very well on you and what kind of person you're becoming."  
  
"But I should have waited for you," Sailor Moon finished the thought impatiently.   
  
"It's just that you're so reckless sometimes."  
  
"Mom, I see a problem and I solve it. That's what Sailor Moon is supposed to do."  
  
"Sailor Moon is also responsible for the lives of her senshi, who are her guardians and charged with her safety at the expense of their lives if necessary," Serenity said. "Recklessness puts them in danger because it increases the odds that one or more of them might have to make that sacrifice." She turned to her daughter and gave her a serious, solemn look. "Watching your friends die is not pleasant, honey. Believe me. And knowing you could have prevented it by being a little more careful is an even less pleasant feeling."  
  
Sailor Moon's mouth thinned to a line, but she didn't respond. She knew the legendary history of the previous Sailor Moon only too well.  
  
As they approached the mountain range the group noted through the shroud of the fog some activity nearby. Giving it a wide berth, they nevertheless tried to observe the natives to gauge them and any threat they might pose - - or any level of threat they might pose to the natives.  
  
The closest visible person to them was human-looking, a woman. As proximity dissipated the fog cover, they could see she was dressed in tatters and chains, with manacles around her wrists and ankles and her throat encased in a close-fitting metallic collar. All five bands were interconnected by heavy metal links designed to hamper but not immobilize. Hygiene was clearly not a priority with the woman, evident from her stringy green hair and dull, rough skin. Her eyes were hollow, her expression vacant and her posture broken. She just stood there as they passed, oblivious to everything.  
  
"That . . . poor woman," Serenity softly gasped as the others looked on in curious horror.  
  
"What's with the chains?" Sailor Moon whispered.  
  
"Perhaps we've stumbled into a penal camp," Mercury offered. She scanned the area with her visor while everyone else sensed Saturn tense at the very thought of Michiru possibly imprisoned here.  
  
Just then another woman stalked up to the one in chains. She wore a black uniform with a high collar and thick black boots, and carried several fearsome items on a wide black belt around her waist. Her black hair was severely pulled back from a hawkish face that could be pretty if she wasn't glowering at the chained woman. When she got close to the fettered wretch, the woman in chains cringed and shrank away from her.  
  
"No loitering!" the uniformed woman bellowed.  
  
She pulled a blunted rod about a foot and a half-long from her belt and jabbed the woman with it. Upon contact with the skin, the rod emitted an electrical charge. The chained woman collapsed in a heap and quivered helplessly as her attacker stood over her.  
  
"Get up!" demanded the woman while the prisoner continued to spasm. "Get up, you lazy green-hair or you'll get another one!"  
  
"What's her problem?" gasped Ceres.  
  
Mars and Mercury turned to Serenity, anticipating she would intervene and desiring to keep their incursion undiscovered. They were already too late. Serenity was already crossing toward the uniformed woman.  
  
"Get up, slacker!" the woman roared, brandishing the rod as if she meant to strike again. "You green-hairs are all . . .!"  
  
A delicate hand folded over the gloved hand holding the rod. The woman in uniform turned angrily and found herself face to face with Serenity.  
  
"Please," Serenity said, gentle in her reproach. "She's a living being. There's no need for such cruelty."  
  
The woman's response was a vicious blow that knocked Serenity to the ground. Sailor Moon and the Asteroid Senshi gasped in shock.  
  
"Supreme Thunder!" Jupiter roared and the air suddenly smelled of ozone. There was a momentary flash of light and the tingle of electricity in the air. Suddenly the uniformed woman crumpled.  
  
Mars was the first to Serenity's side. She helped her queen to sit up as the others crowded around.  
  
"Serenity?" Mars asked.  
  
"I'm not permanently damaged," Serenity replied. "She just surprised me." Serenity pulled away and moved over to the woman in chains. She helped the still dazed woman to sit up. "Are you hurt anywhere?"  
  
At last the woman realized where she was. At once she panicked and tried to crawl away from Serenity.  
  
"Please, I don't want to hurt you!" Serenity cried.   
  
Grasping the woman's shoulders, Serenity held on as the woman struggled and thrashed in an effort to escape. As she held her, Serenity's aura began to overwhelm the woman. Her struggles ceased and she began to calm. However she wouldn't look at Serenity.  
  
"Why was that woman punishing you?" Serenity asked. The woman just shook her head without speaking, keeping her gaze averted. "Why are you chained?" Again no answer save to shake her head.  
  
"What's wrong with her?" Sailor Pallas asked.  
  
"If I had to guess, I'd say she's suffering from deep psychological trauma," Mercury told them, studying the woman intently, "possibly induced by prolonged cruelty or maltreatment - - perhaps even torture." She pointed to the ancient scars on the girl's arms.  
  
"Oh my!" Serenity gasped, genuinely upset. Her eyes began to tear. "Perhaps I can help," she said to the woman, "if you'll let me."  
  
Serenity took on a silvery glow as her hands reached for the woman's temples. The chained woman tried to shy away, but her struggles ceased when Serenity's fingers began to massage her temples. Serenity closed her eyes and the shimmering glow enveloped the woman as well. Her brow knit, but Serenity's manner remained peaceful as she allowed her head to ease back. The captive woman's manner mimicked Serenity's. Her breathing eased and her fists relaxed into open hands. A light began to appear in her hollow eyes as hope became born again in her soul. The woman's mouth pulled into a small, timid smile.  
  
"Beautiful," she whispered.   
  
As she went limp, Serenity supported her. After a few moments, the woman sat up on her own. Perplexed as to what just happened, she turned to Serenity. Her expression was of utter confusion, but it was confusion tinged with gratitude.  
  
"Thank you, Mistress," she said. "Why?"  
  
"Because you were suffering," Serenity replied as if the answer should have been obvious. "And I'm nobody's mistress. Please call me Serenity."  
  
As this happened, Sailor Moon was off to the side, beaming proudly. Mars noticed and smiled knowingly to herself.  
  
"What's your name?" Serenity asked gently.  
  
"Veda, Mistress," the woman responded.  
  
"Ah ah," Serenity said, wagging a finger at her.  
  
"F-Forgive me!" Veda responded hurriedly. Her head bowed as she searched her memory. "S-Serenity. I am Veda - - Serenity."  
  
"Let me get those chains off of you," Serenity said, reaching for the manacles. Veda shrank away again and violently shook her head.  
  
"No! Do not touch the chains! I do not wish to die!" Veda shouted. Serenity pulled back and the woman calmed. Almost embarrassed by her display of fear, she cast her eyes down and said, "Veda must wear them."  
  
"Why are you in chains?" Mercury asked her.   
  
Veda darkened. "It is - - required."  
  
"By who?" Serenity asked.  
  
"By the Imperial Guard," Veda replied. When they didn't seem to understand, she nodded to the unconscious woman in the black uniform.   
  
"Are you a prisoner here?" Jupiter asked. "Did you commit a crime or something?"  
  
Intimidated by Jupiter's size and manner, Veda shrank back. Only when she felt the comfort of Serenity's hand did she relax.  
  
"My only crime is not working hard enough," she said. Again they didn't seem to understand, so she continued. "I am a slave. All of my kind are slaves. All slaves must be chained. The queen requires it. To remove the chains is to bring death. To remove the collar is to bring death." They didn't seem to be able to believe her. Veda found this strange. "All slaves on Ravenheim must wear chains. It is the law."  
  
"How long have you been a slave?" Mars asked, aghast at the thought.  
  
Veda looked down. "My chains are all I have ever known. I have worn these chains for all of my sixteen summers."  
  
"She's only sixteen?" Ceres whispered to Juno in amazement. Each girl had thought Veda to be much older.  
  
The elder senshi were about to question her more, but suddenly Sailor Moon broke in.  
  
"Is there a stranger here?" the girl with the pink hair asked her. "She has green hair like you, but she's not from here. Do you remember ever seeing someone like that?"  
  
Sailor Moon's urgency intimidated the girl. Her eyes averted, reflexively fearing retribution if she didn't cooperate, Veda searched her memory. But she didn't get a chance to answer. Venus silently signaled the others and the elder senshi stood up and formed a protective wall in front of Serenity. The younger senshi looked and saw a squadron of women in black uniforms approaching them. With precision steps the squadron fanned out and encircled the group. Once they ringed the senshi, one of the Imperial Guards stepped forward.  
  
"For striking an Imperial Guard," the squadron leader announced, "you are all under arrest in the name of the Queen! Surrender immediately!"  
  
The guards drew menacing-looking weapons from their belts to back up their demand.  
  
Continued in Chapter 4 


	4. The Castle In The Sky

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part Four: "The Castle in The Sky"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
"For striking an Imperial Guard," the squadron leader announced, "you are all under arrest in the name of the Queen! Surrender immediately!"  
  
The guards drew menacing-looking weapons from their belts to back up their demand. Sailor Moon and the Asteroid Senshi tensed, ready to bring their abilities to bear. Then they and the elder senshi heard a voice in their heads.  
  
"Venus," Serenity thought-cast to everyone, "follow up down here. Go with Sailor Saturn and try to locate Michiru. Take Mercury and Jupiter with you."  
  
"What are you going to do?" Venus thought and Serenity heard her.  
  
"I'm going to meet with the ruler of this place. Perhaps I can talk him or her into a peaceful solution to all of this. I'll take Mars with me. You know she'd insist, so I thought I'd save her the trouble." Mars scowled at Serenity and got an impish grin in return. Then she narrowed the thought-cast so only the elder senshi could receive it. "I'll take Usa and Ceres with me. Why don't you take Juno and Pallas - - it'll be a good experience for them. I'd like you to take Vesta, too. However I can take her if you prefer."  
  
Venus glanced at Vesta. The girl saw her and looked down. Then Venus noticed Mercury silently prodding her. Once more it made her feel like an ogre.  
  
"I'll take her," Venus thought back. "It'd probably be better if we keep her away from the princess." Then she stuck her tongue out at Mercury.   
  
"One problem with your plan," Jupiter interjected, speaking because she still wasn't used to all this telepathy stuff. "How do we get past these guards without taking losses?"  
  
"I'll handle that," Serenity said with quiet confidence. Without fear, she walked up to the squad leader, to everyone's surprise.  
  
Venus, though, recovered quickly. "OK, Serenity's about to make a play. Saturn, Juno, Pallas, Vesta, you're with Jupiter, Mercury and me. The rest - -" and she stopped when she noticed Saturn was nowhere to be found.  
  
"Halt!" the squad leader ordered, pulling her shock stick. "That's far enough!"  
  
"There's no need to be frightened," Serenity smiled kindly. "There's only the four of us and we mean you no harm." Mars eased in behind Serenity, pulling Sailor Moon with her. She motioned for Sailor Ceres to follow.  
  
"There's only the four of you," the squad leader repeated blankly, completely ignoring everyone except Serenity, Mars, Ceres and Sailor Moon. "You mean us no harm."  
  
"I am Queen Serenity of Earth. There's clearly been a misunderstanding," Serenity said.  
  
"Clearly there's been a misunderstanding," the squad leader repeated.  
  
"Perhaps if you take us to your ruler, we can clear it up," Serenity suggested.  
  
"We'd better take them to the queen," the squad leader told her troops. "She'll clear this up. Move out!"  
  
The squad moved out, surrounding Serenity, Mars, Ceres and Sailor Moon and completely ignoring the others. As they walked, Mars leaned in to Serenity.  
  
"I hope you know what you're doing," Mars murmured.  
  
"If I don't, I'm depending upon you to tell me," Serenity murmured back.  
  
"Are the others going to be all right?"  
  
"We just have to depend on Venus and her leadership skills."  
  
"Venus?" Mars replied skeptically.  
  
"Mom, how'd you do that?" asked Sailor Moon.  
  
"Oh, it's just a little trick I picked up," Serenity smirked. "I saw it in a movie once when I was your age."  
  
"How come I've never seen you do it before?"  
  
"Because I don't like doing it," Serenity replied tersely. "Influencing the thoughts of others is an invasion of someone's most private and personal area. It's demeaning to that person and I only use it in times when the good is far greater than the harm."  
  
"So why are we going to see this ruler?"  
  
"To see if he or she knows what happened to Michiru and to see why there is slavery on this world. Perhaps I can convince her to change things."  
  
"So why am I along? Shouldn't I be with the others?"  
  
"I'd rather you were with me."  
  
"But they're my senshi. I'm responsible for them. You told me that yourself!"  
  
"Don't argue with your mother!" Mars told her crossly. Sailor Moon folded her arms over her chest and blew at her bangs in frustration. Ceres followed along uncomfortably.  
  
"Anybody seen Saturn or Pallas?" Venus asked. She scanned the area with her eyes. "And for that matter, has anybody seen that slave girl?" Jupiter and Juno whirled around to find Veda had disappeared in the confusion.  
  
"Find bunch we are," muttered Jupiter.  
  
"Pallas?" Vesta thought, trying to use their telepathic link. "Pallas, where are you? Answer me!"  
  
Venus noticed her concentrating, noticed the first genuine emotion the girl had shown in over a month. It was a good sign, a sign of the old Vesta who lived life and didn't shy away from a challenge. But how easily could she slip into a rage if something bad had happened to Sailor Pallas?  
  
"She's not responding!" Vesta cried and only Juno truly knew what she meant. "I've got to go look for her!"  
  
"Oh no," Venus shook her head. "We stay together."  
  
"Sensei Venus-sama, please!" Vesta begged.  
  
"If we all go running off in our own direction, we'll be easier targets and we won't get the mission accomplished. We'll look for Pallas when we can. Right now our priority is finding Saturn, because I've got a feeling she's headed straight for where she thinks Michiru is." Vesta was about to protest further, but Mercury interceded.  
  
"Venus is right," she told Vesta. "Our first priority is the mission. I know it's difficult, but we must stay focused."  
  
Vesta struggled with this. Clearly the girl wanted to go looking for Pallas - - at the same time, she didn't want to incur the wrath of her mentors. She wore the conflict openly on her face.  
  
"OK," Vesta replied finally, her shoulders slumped in defeat.  
  
"Come on, Vesta," Juno said, her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Pallas will be all right."  
  
"Are you kidding?" Vesta almost sobbed. "She can't even cross the street on her own! How's she going to do on her own in this place?"  
  
"We just have to hope she's with Saturn," Juno told her. Jupiter and Mercury exchanged worried looks with Venus. Finally Venus motioned them forward.   
  
The troop escorted Serenity and her party to one of the metal pillars extending into the heavens. Pressing a stud on her belt, the squad leader signaled a door recessed in the pillar to open. Inside the pillar was an elevator. Serenity calmly walked inside, flanked by her daughter, Ceres and Mars, with four guards and the squad leader bracketing them. The car began to ascend at a high rate of speed.  
  
"Where do you think we're going?" Ceres asked Serenity.  
  
"To see the ruler," Serenity responded. She turned to Mars. "When we meet her, I'd like you to try to read as much as you can."  
  
"You realize these are aliens and I might not be able to read them as accurately as someone from Earth?" Mars reminded her.  
  
"Just do your best," Serenity replied.  
  
The car opened and everyone stepped out. Serenity, Sailor Moon, Sailor Ceres and Sailor Mars all looked around in wonder. They stood on the edge of an ornate city of sleek elongated structures pointing up into the sky and gleaming in the light of the world's sun. Each structure was pristine and richly apportioned. It was a city that whispered of prosperity and plenty. Walking from the elevator, the group passed by a metal railing atop a transparent barrier that ran in both directions along the perimeter of the city. Peering over the railing, Ceres looked down and her eyes popped.  
  
"Wow!" she gasped, turning back to the adults. "We've got to be thousands of kilometers in the sky!"  
  
"A city in the clouds," Mars commented, "that sits on top of four giant metal legs - - and the backs of slave labor."  
  
"Please don't judge them until we've met them," Serenity told her. "They may not be evil. They may just not know a better way." Mars gave her a cynical scowl.  
  
The four senshi were escorted to a gleaming metal palace inside the city. As they passed, people in the street would stop and look at them, pointing in wonder. Sailor Moon would look them over as they passed, studying them as they studied her.  
  
"Mom," she whispered. "Have you noticed anything about the people? They all have black hair."  
  
"Oh?" Serenity looked. "So they do."  
  
"Well, most people in Japan had black hair at one time," Mars told her, "before evolution and interbreeding with the west changed that. Maybe it's just a racial characteristic."  
  
"So why don't I see any men?" Sailor Moon asked.  
  
Serenity and Mars exchanged perplexed looks.  
  
The procession was stopped at the door while the squad leader explained why they were here. When the Captain of the guards didn't buy the squad leader's 'logic', Serenity interceded and 'explained' things to her. Soon the four were escorted into the palace throne room.  
  
"If it please Her Highness," the Captain, a sturdy woman with a severe beauty, said, "I present the Queen Serenity of Earth and her entourage."  
  
As Serenity and the others walked down a narrow path to the throne blocked out in red floor tile against the yellow of the rest of the floor, they looked at the woman sitting on this world's equivalent to a throne. She was a woman of average height, but with striking features. She had large eyes with delicate brown coloring and a piercing look. Her cheekbones were high and her nose was prominent, giving her an air of regalness, while her small mouth was playful and sweet. Her black hair was pulled back from her face and fell down her back to her waist. She wore a violet gown that was fastened behind her neck and which nicely draped a slim, sleek figure, and a violet cape. Jewelry adorned her everywhere, from the ornate earrings on her lobes, the fancy ringlets on her upper arms and the clattering wristlets below to the ostentatious necklace around her throat and several gaudy rings on her fingers. The queen observed them as they approached, casually superior but generous. She seemed to be in her early twenties.  
  
On either side of the queen were two menacing female guards. This was expected. To the surprise and unease of the visitors, there were also four women kneeling beside the throne. They were dressed in revealing harem-like costumes of diaphanous colored silk with their brown hair done up and styled and their bodies adorned with simple yet attractive jewelry. Each one wore a metal collar around her throat and wrist and ankle manacles connected by lighter, thinner silver chains. They looked at the approaching party with a mixture of shame and resignation.  
  
Serenity reached a point about ten feet away from her and bowed. Mars and the others followed suit.  
  
"I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Queen Serenity," the monarch said directly to Sailor Mars. "What a unique ensemble you wear. And your concubines are quite exotic and beautiful."  
  
"Um," Mars began.  
  
"It is a uniform of her rank and status," Serenity said without showing any offense. "And I thank you for the compliment on our beauty, though we're not Sailor Mars' concubines." The monarch stared at her in confusion, then looked back at Mars. "I'm grateful you chose to see us, Your Highness. I'm sure you did so out of your generous nature and not any connotations my name might bring."  
  
"You are Queen Serenity?" the woman asked, surprised. "But your hair? You have such a simple gown for a queen and you wear no adornments?"  
  
"A personal choice," Serenity replied, again without offense.   
  
"Please forgive my mistake. I am Queen Desiree of Ravenheim," the queen smiled charitably. "What did you wish of me?"  
  
"I am searching for someone who may be on your planet," Serenity explained. "A dear and long-lost friend - - her name is Michiru Kaioh, though you may also know her as Sailor Neptune. She was traveling with another friend of mine who may be here as well. Her name is Haruka Tenou, though she is also known as Sailor Uranus."  
  
"These names are not known to me," Desiree replied. She was very composed and seemed to be indulging someone without really caring. "How come you by this supposition that they are here?"  
  
"We received a call from Michiru on my planet," Serenity replied. "The message was short, but it said she was in great distress on this planet. Is it possible that her spaceship crashed here?"  
  
"Spaceship?" queried Desiree. "Is such a thing possible? Clearly your race is more advanced than mine to be capable of such things. But such an event as someone falling from the sky would become known very quickly. Alas, I fear I am again unable to help you." She smiled innocently at Serenity. "Was there anything else?"  
  
"Yes," Serenity said, bowing her head as if anticipating conflict. "You strike me as a very kind and enlightened ruler." Desiree smiled at the compliment. "Which makes me wonder why such a kind and enlightened sovereign would tolerate enslaving her fellow being?"  
  
Desiree's smile dimmed.  
  
"I have done no such thing," Desiree replied calmly, though the storm behind the smile was there in her eyes to see. "All the people of the Cloud City of Ravenheim are treated as my peers. They want for nothing. They live in a society that encourages exploration of the sciences and pursuit of the arts. They are free to do and say as they choose, for they are one with their queen and I would have it no other way."  
  
Serenity merely gestured to the fettered women at the queen's feet.  
  
"Them?" Desiree gaped, nearly laughing with incredulity. "They are not my 'fellow beings'! They are unique and exotic works of art that adorn my palace and give me solace." She grasped the brown hair of the nearest one. "Can you not tell the difference between us?"  
  
"Your Majesty," Serenity replied patiently, "all who possess life are our fellows. We all feel. We all love. Outward appearance doesn't distinguish us and set one above or below another. Please, I would hope you were wise enough to see that. To chain someone and take them as a slave simply because they possess different hair color is beneath someone of your great station."  
  
Desiree's eyes narrowed.  
  
"You speak your mind bluntly, though your words are couched in the honey of diplomacy," Desiree said. "Since you are a sovereign and no doubt used to doing so, I will excuse it. Perhaps it is the way of your world to mix with those beneath you. I do not judge. But it is not our way and I would thank you to not judge me, good queen. And now I am desirous of an end to this audience. I wish you good fortune in the search for your friends."  
  
Desiree turned her head, signaling the audience was over. The guards leaned forward in case their queen's wishes needed to be enforced. However, Serenity bowed with a grave expression on her face, turned and left. Mars, Ceres and Sailor Moon followed.  
  
"That's it?" Sailor Moon demanded outside the room. "That's all you're going to do?"  
  
"I wish I knew where you got this low opinion of me," Serenity sighed. Turning to Mars, she asked, "What were your impressions?"  
  
"Well," Mars began, her brow furrowed, "she wasn't lying when she said the names Haruka and Michiru meant nothing to her. And she really believes that whole 'separate caste' stuff. It's almost like we're in feudal times in that respect. And those guards believe it, too, strongly enough for it to be their religion." Mars searched her impressions. "But it just seems to me like she was hiding something, too. I didn't like the vibes I got when you mentioned Michiru's spaceship."  
  
"Then they are here?" Sailor Ceres concluded.  
  
"Haruka's here," Serenity said, casting a worried look around. "Somewhere in this palace. I can feel it."  
  
"So since the direct approach didn't work, we get sneaky?" Sailor Moon asked. Mars shot her a conspiratory grin.  
  
"You're learning," she nodded.  
  
Four guards walked down one of the halls of the palace, their black boots clicking on the tiled floor and chanting out their brisk pace. Black uniforms crisply hugged generous figures, while fine black hair was pulled back and tied at the base of the skull in precise military fashion. To anyone they passed, they were just four more guards in a palace full of them. No one could hope to guess that the four were Queen Serenity, Sailor Mars, Sailor Ceres and Sailor Moon.  
  
When she had been Sailor Moon, once upon a time, she would have used the power of the Disguise Pen to alter her appearance into a Cloud City guard. That was long ago; now Serenity had the power not only to alter her own appearance, but to do so for her companions as well.  
  
What she hadn't yet mastered in a thousand years was precision cadence.  
  
"You're out of step," Mars whispered to her.  
  
"Well I'm the one leading this procession, so technically you're out of step," Serenity whispered back.  
  
"Well if you'd manage to keep a consistent cadence, I'd follow it," Mars growled.  
  
"If you two are going to get into an argument, could you tell me now so Ceres and I can hide," Sailor Moon hissed. "I don't want all FOUR of us to get caught." That managed to calm them down. "Do either of you know where we're going?"  
  
"I'm homing in on Haruka's aura," Serenity explained.  
  
"And I'm trying to feel for any premonitions of danger," Mars added. "And try to keep in step with someone who has two left feet."  
  
Serenity turned around and stuck her tongue out at Mars.   
  
They marched up to a connector hall and turned left. That took them straight into a guard checkpoint.  
  
"What's your business here?" the sentry asked, stopping them.  
  
"We're on a priority mission for Queen Desiree herself," Serenity replied calmly.  
  
"What mission?"  
  
"We're under orders not to tell anyone," Mars spoke up.  
  
The sentry eyed them suspiciously.  
  
"Wait there," she said, reaching for a communicator.  
  
"You don't need to do that," Serenity told her.  
  
"I - - don't?" the sentry asked.  
  
"No. You already called and confirmed it, remember?"  
  
"Oh, yes," the sentry frowned. "I must be having a bad day."  
  
"It'll be our secret," Serenity smiled generously and they passed through the checkpoint.  
  
"For someone who doesn't like to use that, you sure use it a lot," Sailor Moon commented.  
  
"There's just something telling me that I need to hurry," Serenity replied. "If I have to cut a few corners to get there - - I'll have to live with that."  
  
The quartet came up to a double door. It was trimmed in precious metal with ornate door handles.  
  
"This is it?" Mars asked.  
  
"Yes," Serenity nodded. "She seems to be in here." Serenity tugged at the door handle. "Locked."  
  
"Allow me," Mars said. She placed her fingertip on the line where the two doors met. "Precise Inferno," she whispered.  
  
At once her index finger grew super-hot, turning first blistering red and then white hot. Then a beam of intense fire came out of the finger; but it was a narrow beam, precisely controlled and concentrated. She moved her finger down, tracing the seam between the doors until she cut the bolts, then doused her finger. Serenity moved to enter, but Mars kept her back and entered first. Once they were inside the room, Serenity dropped their disguises.  
  
"Oh my," she heard Serenity gasp behind her as Mars surveyed the room.  
  
The room was a dormitory to about thirty women. They were all dressed in the same diaphanous harem costumes as the slaves who knelt next to Desiree's throne. There were women of nearly every size, shape and hair color. Some had white hair, some had yellow and some had brown. There was even one whose hair was a deep violet. Yet there were traits that tied them together with an eerie sameness. Besides their garb, they all were stunningly beautiful. Yet they all wore the same mask of resignation and defeat.  
  
That and their collars and chains.  
  
"What is this, a harem?" Sailor Moon gasped.  
  
"I think you hit the nail on the head," Mars commented. Sailor Moon looked at her and saw she was serious.   
  
Heedless of their conversation, Serenity moved into the room. As she walked, the captive women looked away, as if fearing reprisal. Mars quickly moved to catch up while the younger senshi guarded the door. Mars saw how upset Serenity was by all of this.  
  
"This is so sad," Serenity whispered. "How can someone justify doing this to another living being?"  
  
"Because not everybody's as pure as you are," Mars said softly, with a hint of sympathy. "After all these years, I'd have thought you'd have grasped that by now."  
  
"I keep hoping," Serenity replied.  
  
They saw it together. In the corner of the room, wearing the chains and costume of a harem slave, was a lanky frame and a shock of short blonde hair. Mars heard Serenity gasp in alarm even as she realized the truth.  
  
"Haruka!" Serenity cried out. Instantly she was at the woman's side, kneeling next to her.   
  
But Haruka turned away and hid her face.  
  
"D-Don't look at me," the woman whispered in shame. And at that moment Serenity wished she had no eyes.  
  
Continued in chapter 5 


	5. The Divided House

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part Five: "The Divided House"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
Four senshi waited as Sailor Mercury whispered commands to her computer. Her visor was up. She would scan the terrain for a time, then look at the analysis on her computer screen. None of the others could tell from Mercury's intense expression whether her readings were encouraging or not.  
  
Sailor Venus glanced over at Sailor Vesta. The girl would alternately look intently at Mercury, as if trying to will her to find something, and scan the area as if she hoped to see something that Mercury's visor couldn't. Venus tried to remember when she was Vesta's age and wore her emotions on her sleeve. She felt sorry for the girl, because Pallas was missing and Pallas clearly meant more to Vesta than most things did. At the same time, Vesta seemed wound tight enough that the least little thing might set her off - - and they knew what Vesta was capable of when set off.  
  
"Keep your head," Venus whispered, slipping up behind the girl unnoticed. Her hand gripped Vesta's shoulder, both for support and control. "I know Pallas means a lot to you, but you're not going to do her any good if you lose it."  
  
"Yes," Vesta said, swallowing her embarrassment in mid-sentence, "Sensei Venus-sama. I-I'm trying. I am."  
  
"I know," Venus replied, the words almost as hard for her.  
  
"Anything?" Jupiter asked Mercury.  
  
"There's a lot to filter out," Mercury told her. "This area is teeming with life forms."  
  
"Where?" Sailor Juno asked.  
  
"There are heavy concentrations in the caves," Mercury continued. "There are heavy concentrations underground, in what looks to be a mine. And I'm getting other clusters."  
  
"Is there a way to tell which one is Pallas and Saturn?"  
  
"Oh yes," Mercury smiled reassuringly. "I've made some modifications to my visor and computer over the years."  
  
"'Some modifications'?" Jupiter teased. "You could probably control the entire Japanese cyber-net from that computer."  
  
"You're exaggerating," Mercury sighed.  
  
"It's a good thing you're not the dictator type," smirked Jupiter. Mercury blushed slightly, a reaction that mystified Juno.  
  
"As I was saying," Mercury continued, "I have biological and magnetic aura information for all the current and original senshi stored in my database. Once my visor scans matching aura I'll be able to triangulate with the polar north on this world and establish the location of both Sailor Saturn and Sailor Pallas."  
  
"Wow," marveled Juno. "Can you find Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, too?"  
  
"No. Unfortunately I don't have scan data for either of them. Their last visit to Earth was in 2917. That was prior to my making these specific modifications."  
  
"What's taking so long?" Venus heard Vesta say softly. She gripped the girl's shoulder harder.  
  
"There!" Mercury said. Every eye turned to her. "Along the base of that mountain range. They're both together. They seem to be headed for the mine. Saturn is staying close to the foot of the mountain."  
  
"Probably to keep from being seen by any of those guards we met up with," Venus judged.  
  
"Saturn always was a smart kid," nodded Jupiter.  
  
Venus noticed Vesta's anxiety, but she was holding back trying to verbally prod the others. It drew a smile of compassion.  
  
"Come on," Venus said to the others. "Let's get them before they run into any more of those jack-booted goons."  
  
The team set out, Mercury in the lead and Venus behind her, with the two Asteroids in the middle and Jupiter guarding the flank. As they walked, Juno eased up to Vesta.  
  
"She'll be all right," Juno whispered.  
  
"I hope so," Vesta replied. "I could have found her, you know. I could have changed into a bloodhound and gotten her scent, or scouted from the air as some bird." She left the rest unspoken.  
  
"Well, they're just used to doing it their way," offered Juno.  
  
"No," Vesta shook her head. "They still don't trust me. Maybe they're right. Maybe I would have just screwed it up."  
  
"Ves, you can't spend the rest of your life second-guessing yourself. People mess up."  
  
"I did more than mess up."  
  
"OK, you messed up and almost killed the princess. It doesn't mean it'll happen again if you're careful. But you can't function if you're afraid." She grasped Vesta's hand. "You're guarding my back. I have to know you'll be there."  
  
Vesta looked down.  
  
"Come on, Ves! I need you to be strong for me! And Pallas is going to need you! You can't let one mistake cripple you!"  
  
Vesta's brow was knit. She wanted so badly to be anywhere but here.  
  
"Ves?" Juno persisted.  
  
"OK," Vesta said at last. "You don't have to worry. I won't let anything happen to you or Pallas. No matter what it costs me."  
  
"Ves, that's not . . .!"  
  
"AAAAAAAAH!" they heard Venus cry out. She was in the midst of spinning to her knees even as the buzz of an energy weapon registered.   
  
Mercury crouched next to Venus even as she scanned the area to spot where the attack came from. Several more energy blasts kicked at the ground. Vesta and Juno tried to get a visual fix on their attacker. Jupiter pushed past them, her lightning rod extended and electricity crackling in her hands.  
  
"Savage Lightning!" Jupiter called out. Volts of electricity leaped from her hands to her tiara, then fanned out in a dozen lightning strikes ahead of her. The area shuddered with the resulting crack of thunder from the super-heated air molecules and there was a momentary blinding flash.  
  
"Where are you hit?" Mercury demanded.   
  
"My side," hissed Venus. "Something caught me. Felt like energy more than a projectile." Mercury peeled away Venus' hand. They both saw a four-inch long, quarter-inch wide burn along the woman's waist on the left side. "Damn it! How am I going to wear something with an open midriff now?"  
  
"Nice to know you're fine," Mercury muttered. She produced a spray from a small kit and sprayed a liquid epidermal over the wound.  
  
"Aqua Initiation!" Juno called out, gesturing at what they could now see was a squadron of black uniform guards. The ground beneath their feet rumbled and a dozen water geysers spat up out of the ground, bowling several over.  
  
"Nice trick," Jupiter nodded with a smile. That drew a thrilled return smile from Juno. "Let's me do this. Jupiter! Oak Evolution!"  
  
Aided by the water soaking the guards, Jupiter's electrical bursts were conducted through the guards effortlessly. All six guards went rigid, then slumped to the ground.   
  
"How did they spot us?" Juno asked.  
  
"Perhaps they weren't looking for us," Mercury proposed. "Perhaps they were just a routine patrol."  
  
"Maybe, but I don't think so," Venus replied. "It looked to me like they were a search patrol. They were after somebody."  
  
"Like Saturn and Pallas?" Jupiter wondered aloud. That was all Vesta needed to hear.  
  
"Fauna Assimilation - - tiger!" she called out. Despite her wound, Venus moved to tackle Vesta's tiger form as it sped past her, headed toward the mountain range. However, she was too slow.  
  
"Damn it, I'm going to put my foot up that girl's . . .!" Venus snarled, holding her side as she stood.  
  
"Don't go after her!" Mercury warned, grabbing Venus by the wrist. "You're injured!"  
  
"Somebody's got to and I'm the one responsible for her!" Venus snapped, ripping her hand out of Mercury's grasp. "You three get to Saturn and Pallas and continue the mission! We'll meet you there!" She started off, then turned around. "And nobody else run off!"   
  
The trio closed ranks as they watched Venus chase after Vesta.  
  
"Minako's so scary when she gets maternal," Mercury smirked.  
  
"Blondie as a mother - - now THAT IS scary," Jupiter joked. "You still have a fix on Saturn?"  
  
"Give me a moment," Mercury replied. To the computer, she said, "Update." Juno could see the display change instantly. "Yes. They seem to be headed down into the mine. Jupiter - - what if this isn't a penal colony? What if it's a forced labor camp?"  
  
"And Michiru's down there?" Jupiter gulped. "But where's Haruka? Of the two, you'd think she would be the one in a labor camp. She's bigger and stronger than Michiru - - always has been."  
  
"Unless," Mercury ventured, then stopped before she finished the thought.  
  
And just like that, Jupiter pitched forward onto the ground. Her body convulsed on the ground. Mercury's trained eye immediately spotted the two prongs in her back and deduced that the projectiles transmitted an electrical charge that temporarily paralyzed Jupiter. Ironic, if she had more time to dwell on it.  
  
Venus felt her side begin to burn in protest, trying to dissuade her from running any more. She ignored it and persisted onward. Vesta was rushing blindly toward the mine - - just like she was - - and could be running headlong into more trouble than she could handle.   
  
Part of her wanted to throttle Vesta. This was just the sort of blindly emotional stunt that got people killed. The experienced warrior in her knew Vesta was fragmenting the force and endangering herself and everyone else.   
  
But another part of her admired the girl's loyalty at the same time. Vesta was dedicated to her sister Asteroids, if nothing else, and her own life and safety were secondary. You don't find deep-seeded loyalty like that all the time. As she ran, Venus thought back to all the times Serenity and her other senshi would risk personal safety to protect each other. Was Vesta doing anything different now?  
  
"Maybe you ought to cut her some slack, Aino," Venus thought as she ducked behind some rocks and observed the mine entrance. "After all, you made your share of bad judgment calls over the years - - starting with Ace."  
  
There was no sign of Vesta at the entrance - - only more women in black guard uniforms.   
  
"They must breed their guards to be big," Venus muttered, noting the positions of the three guards in relation to the mouth of the mineshaft. She looked around the area, surveying it for ways she could access the tunnel without being spotted, as well as for signs of Vesta. She half expected to see a tiger bound out of the bushes at any moment and take on the three guards.  
  
Then a motion caught her eye. A small rodent, looking like a rat at this distance, skittered along the rocks near the mouth of the mine entrance. It was headed for the mouth with cautious haste.  
  
"A rat?" thought Venus. "Couldn't you have picked something smaller? They're bound to notice you."  
  
Prophetic thoughts, because just then one of the guards noticed the skittering creature. She gestured to it with her stun club.  
  
"Ahhh!" gasped the second guard in revulsion. "Everywhere in this place, nothing but vermin! The people in the Cloud City don't know how good they have it!"  
  
"Think you can hit it?" asked the first.  
  
Venus tensed.  
  
"Why should I waste an energy blast on vermin?" sneered the second.  
  
"Ten driads says you can't hit it," the third chimed in.  
  
The second looked at her. "You have it on you?"  
  
The third produced some bills. Venus swallowed.  
  
"Easy money," smirked the second guard. She drew an energy pistol and took aim.  
  
"Narrow beam," cautioned the first.  
  
"Don't be insulting," sneered the second. The rodent was still about a meter from the mine entrance as she aimed.  
  
"I doubt you could hit it!" Venus called out, stepping from concealment out into the open. "How about I give you a bigger target!"  
  
Startled, the other guards reached for their weapons belts while the one with the energy pistol tracked from the rodent to Venus. Venus only smiled.  
  
"Venus Love Me Chain!" she called out.   
  
The chain appeared and shot out, striking the energy pistol and knocking it away even as the weapon was being aimed at her. While the startled guard stared at her now empty hand, Venus pivoted, whipping the chain around. It struck one guard's hand on a downward stroke, ripping the club from her grasp. The upstroke in the figure eight pattern carried the chain to the other guard's hand, disarming her and whipping the weapons belt from her waist. Venus allowed herself a glance at the shaft entrance. The rodent stood pressed against the rock near the entrance, eyes riveted on the battle.  
  
"Go, Vesta!" Venus thought as she retracted her chain. "I'm got them distracted!"  
  
The guards began to advance on Venus, trying to surround her and neutralize her swinging chain at close quarters. Suddenly the end of the chain slammed down, biting at the turf just in front of the lead guard. They watched the chain, then looked at Venus.  
  
"Come on," Venus urged them on. She wore a satisfied smile and there was a gleam in her eye. "I promise I won't hurt you too bad."  
  
Just then Venus caught sight of a fly amid the three guards. She only saw it because the fly was in the process of enlarging, changing before her eyes into a polar bear. Startled, Venus glanced over to the shaft entrance. The rodent was still there, in the process of obtaining whatever cover was to be had. The bear reared up on its hind legs and swatted one of the guards to the ground, then landed on her middle with both front legs to drive the wind from the unconscious woman.  
  
Instantly seizing the advantage in the confusion, Venus flung her chain forward. It wrapped itself around the neck of the lead guard. With a violent jerk, Venus spun the woman around and she fell to the ground, unconscious as well. Vesta made short work of the third, then turned as Venus ran up.  
  
"What are you doing?" demanded Venus.  
  
"No offense!" the bear replied defensively. "I thought you needed help! Why'd you jump out from behind the rocks like that! You left yourself totally exposed!"  
  
"I thought you were the rat!"  
  
"I was going in as a fly! It's a lot harder to spot than a rat! Duh!"  
  
Venus wanted to argue further, but suddenly realized she didn't have anything to argue about. Vesta had assessed the situation and acted properly. She'd broken cover only to come to the aid of a teammate. Venus barely stifled a giggle, making Vesta regard her curiously.  
  
"Anyway, I'm sorry if I messed things up again," Vesta said, chagrined. "I was just - - trying to help."  
  
Venus felt that feeling of shame again.   
  
"No harm done, I guess," Venus offered with a timid smile. "We just got our wires crossed." Vesta looked up to her mentor, hope in her eyes. "As long as we're here, we may as well find Pallas and Saturn."  
  
The pair turned for the entrance. However, they didn't get two paces before Venus sharply grabbed Vesta by the shoulder. Vesta turned to her inquiringly.  
  
"We've got company," Venus hissed.  
  
No sooner had they turned to their right than the two senshi found a squadron of guards headed toward them. A guard in the lead took aim with an energy pistol and fired.  
  
Venus pushed Vesta aside while she dived in the other direction. Instantly her side began to burn again. Undeterred, she glanced over to Vesta to establish the girl's position.  
  
"Get cover!" Venus ordered.   
  
Vesta scrambled behind an outcropping of rocks.   
  
"Stay back!" Venus yelled, hoping Vesta could hear and would obey. Her hand shot to her side. "Venus! Love and Beauty Shock!"  
  
The shock wave slammed into the squadron of guards, bowling them over. Venus used this time to scrabble behind a rock formation. Looking back at her adversaries, she could see they also were behind the cover of the rocks by the mountain range. Vesta suddenly appeared beside her.  
  
"This isn't good," Venus told her. "They can keep us pinned down until they can surround us with reinforcements."  
  
"Your shock powers can't hurt them?" Vesta asked.  
  
"The rocks would absorb most of the shock wave," Venus said. "And they're probably waiting for me to pop up so they can cut me down." Venus looked around. "Our best bet is to crawl away now and try to find or make another way into this mine."  
  
"I can get into the mine!" Vesta asserted. "They won't even see me in insect form, let alone hit me!"  
  
"Fine, but you don't know what's inside that mine, do you?" Venus asked her point blank. "There could be another squad of goons waiting for you or some security device that could trap you or worse. Think before you act, Vesta! You'll live longer!"  
  
"OK!" Vesta huffed. Venus nudged her.  
  
"Come on, don't pout," Venus said. "I'm sure you'd rather learn it this way than have your head handed to you. Right?"  
  
"Yes, Sensei Venus-sama," Vesta replied, chastened.  
  
Venus patted her arm, then looked around to plan her next move. Suddenly she heard Vesta gasp in pain.  
  
"What is it?" Venus asked. "Are you hit?"  
  
"Pallas!" Vesta gasped. "I-I just felt Pallas! Something's happened to her! Fauna Assimilation - - Fly!"  
  
Before Venus could grab her, Vesta was off again. She headed straight for the mine and disappeared inside.  
  
"Just great," Venus scowled, clutching her injured side. An energy blast glanced off the rock she hid behind.  
  
Mercury and Juno turned from the fallen Jupiter and found another squadron of black uniformed guards behind them. Several pointed weapons at them while the others were armed with stun clubs. Mercury sensed Juno tensing to attack.  
  
"Don't do it," she told the young senshi in a low voice. "You would be cut down before you got your phrase out."  
  
"But Sensei Mercury-sama," Juno began.  
  
"A chance will come," Mercury told her. "Your job is to remain alive and healthy in order to take advantage of it."  
  
While several weapons remained trained on the senshi, three of the guards detached from the squadron and came up to them, each holding metal collars with chains and shackles dangling from them. One snapped a collar around the helpless Jupiter and began shackling her wrists and ankles. The other two came up to Mercury and Juno and did the same. Juno wanted to resist, but followed Mercury's lead and submitted peacefully. When the three were restrained, the squadron leader walked up.  
  
"So what do we have here?" the squadron leader, a tall woman, taller than Mercury, with an imposing figure and harsh features set off by black hair pulled back from her face.  
  
"I am Sailor Mercury of the planet Earth," Mercury began. "I and my companions are looking for . . ."  
  
"Silence!" bellowed the squadron leader.   
  
That was the moment the power of the collar revealed itself to Sailor Mercury. She wanted to continue explaining, but her will to resist suddenly drained away. She looked down at the shackles around her wrists, but they seemed to be ordinary metal. Then she noticed the collar around Juno's throat giving off a faint blue glow. Her eyes grew wide.  
  
"Neural inhibitors?" Mercury whispered, drawing a look from Juno. "A generated electro-encephalic field that inhibits certain chemical reactions in the brain. Oh dear." Then she felt her jaw squeezed in the gloved fingers of the squadron leader and her head wrenched around until she looked the woman in the eye.  
  
"Do you know what I see here?" the woman asked, as much for her squad as for Mercury's benefit. "I see another exotic wench for the queen's harem. I see another green-haired piece of dirt for the mines." Her eyes narrowed as she spoke, riveted on Mercury the entire time. "And I see - - a traitor to her own kind. And you ladies know what we do to traitors, don't you?"  
  
A general murmur of assent peppered with nasty chuckling and rude remarks told Sailor Mercury that she'd miscalculated the situation - - badly.  
  
Continued in chapter 6 


	6. The Hole In The Ground

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part Six: "The Hole In The Ground"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
A shadow appeared on an outcropping of rocks along the base of the Ravenheim mountain range beneath the Cloud City. It was a diffuse shadow, for there was little light in the shallow fog. The shadow grew and to a passerby might suggest a bizarre horned creature of some menace. The scraping of feet on the gritty terrain by the mountain warned of the approach of the being that threw the shadow. Were anything there to see the shadow, it might at that point flee in precaution.  
  
And it would miss the sight of a slight girl of fifteen with shoulder length black tresses, a sailor fuku of violet and white, and a glaive half again as tall as she was. The girl navigated the terrain, hugging the base of the mountains cautiously as her perpetually sad eyes darted left and right. She was such a slight thing that the casual observer would wonder if she could make it to her destination without collapsing from fatigue. She seemed so weak and small, save for the gleaming blade she carried as if it were an extension of her hand.  
  
It had been a harrowing journey so far for Sailor Saturn. She feared discovery at any moment. The hidden dangers this place might possess, the ones Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury warned them about, preyed on her mind, refusing to be shunted completely to the back. But they were all overwhelmed by the gnawing fear that she would find her Michiru-mama, but find her too late.  
  
A noise caught Sailor Saturn's ear. A sense she couldn't name shouted a warning. Something was following her. The girl took two more steps, then whirled and crouched into a battle position, her glaive extended and ready to take deadly toll on any enemy.  
  
Sailor Pallas smiled at her.  
  
"Oh," Saturn sighed in relief. "It's you. Are the others with you?"  
  
Pallas shook her head.  
  
"You're alone? Why did you follow me?"  
  
"Because Pallas thought you might need help finding your mommy," Pallas chirped. "And Pallas didn't want you to get into trouble. Miss Venus Ma'am and Miss Jupiter Ma'am always warn us not to wander off on our own, especially when we're on a mission."  
  
Saturn nodded and turned to continue on. Pallas followed her.  
  
"I know I'm disobeying," Saturn explained. "I wanted to wait for them - - but they were taking so long. I-I'm just afraid," and Saturn's explanation died out. She peeked back at Pallas.  
  
"You need to find your mommy soon," Pallas nodded, understanding in her own child-like way. "How do you know where to find her? Are you talking to your mommy with your thoughts?" Pallas asked.  
  
"No. I just - - know she's here - - and that she's in trouble. It's got me worried sick."  
  
"We'll find her," Pallas offered. They walked on. "You really liked your mommy, didn't you."  
  
"She was great to me," Saturn smiled wistfully. "She and Haruka-papa - - they took me in when - - well, it's complicated. But they loved me like I was their own." Saturn sniffed and wiped a tear. "I really miss them, even though I haven't been separated from them as long as they have from me. And if they're in trouble, I've got to help them. And if it means I get kicked out of the palace for disobeying, well so be it."  
  
"The Queen wouldn't kick you out," Pallas said. "She's a very nice lady. Pallas sometimes wishes she was Pallas's mommy."  
  
Turning past an outcropping, Saturn spotted a small squadron of guards in black uniforms similar to the ones who confronted the senshi earlier. They and several women in slave chains and collars were clustered around the mouth of what looked like a mine. She pulled back, holding Pallas back with her hand.   
  
"Bad ladies," Pallas whispered, peeking over a rock at them.  
  
"We have to get past them," Saturn told her. "I think Michiru-mama is in that mine."  
  
"Are we going to fight them?"  
  
"I wish there was another way," mused Saturn. "I don't want to risk a confrontation that could summon more guards."  
  
"Ohhh! Pallas knows!" Pallas gasped quickly. "Pallas can knock the bad ladies out from here, Miss Saturn Ma'am."  
  
"You can? How?"  
  
"Pallas will show you," Pallas said, smiling proudly. "Beautiful Incantation!"  
  
As she spoke her power phrase, Sailor Pallas pointed to a rock on the ground. Using her senshi telekinesis, Pallas lifted the rock up in the air. It hovered between the two girls.  
  
"Pallas used to do this with magic billiard balls," the girl proclaimed, "but this will work, too."  
  
Mimicking holding a pool cue, Pallas struck the rock and sent it flying. The rock whizzed through the group, to their immediate astonishment, and struck a structure resembling a shed. The rock ricocheted back, striking one guard in the forehead and knocking her down. The rock caromed over to the mine entrance, deflected back and felled a second guard. The rock bounced up, struck a third in the face, banked off of her jaw and slammed into the fourth, putting her down.  
  
"Yay!" Pallas cheered, jumping up and down. "It still works!"  
  
"Shh!" Saturn chided her. "That was very good, but we don't want to attract any attention to ourselves. Come on, let's get inside the mine before someone spots us."   
  
Pallas nodded. Together, the pair stole across the short open area to the mouth of the mineshaft. Cautiously the two peered into the mine.  
  
"Pallas doesn't like the looks of this," Pallas said.   
  
"You don't have to come if you don't want to," Saturn told her. "Thank you for all the help you gave me." She turned to venture into the shaft, then stopped and turned back to Pallas. "I - - I'll see you in class."  
  
"Pallas will come," Pallas said, though it was obvious she wasn't enamored of the idea. "Pallas said she'd help you find your mommy and she will."  
  
"Thank you," Saturn squeaked. Then, glaive at the ready, she ventured into the dimly lit mineshaft, Sailor Pallas huddled behind her.  
  
The pair skittered down the shaft, deeper into the mountain, until they came to an elevator. Sailor Saturn cautiously peered down the elevator shaft. Sailor Pallas peeked over the edge behind her.  
  
"I guess the main part of the mine is below ground," Saturn judged. She took a moment and concentrated. "Michiru-mama's down there." Saturn began looking for a way down the shaft.  
  
"Can't we just use the elevator?" Pallas asked, having sensed Saturn's unspoken reluctance.   
  
"It would attract attention," Saturn said. "I want to avoid that if I can." She turned to Pallas. "Pallas, could you lower us both down the elevator shaft with your telekinesis?"  
  
"Pallas doesn't know," the girl replied doubtfully. "She's never lifted anything that heavy before. She might drop us and then we'd fall and get hurt."  
  
"Come on, Pallas," Saturn said encouragingly. "We're the two smallest senshi in the whole group. We can't be that heavy. Why I'm only thirty-eight and a half kilos (eighty-five pounds)."  
  
Pallas looked down. "Pallas is sorry. She doesn't think she can do it."  
  
Saturn wracked her brain for another solution while Pallas watched uneasily.   
  
"Well I'm a telekinetic, too - - a little," Saturn proposed. "You think maybe you could tap into some of my power? I mean, you're a lot more experienced at doing this kind of stuff than I am. I can barely lift a ruler. But Sensei says I've got the potential for lots more."  
  
"Pallas has never tried anything like that."  
  
"Well, maybe your telepathy can connect our centers of power."  
  
Doubt still haunted the girl's face. "Pallas will try. But please don't be mad at her if she can't do it."  
  
"Deal," Saturn smiled and grasped Pallas by the hand.  
  
Pallas closed her eyes. Almost immediately Saturn could feel a buzzing just below the skin of the hand she held Pallas with. There was something in the back of her mind, floating along the base of her skull with just enough presence to be noticed but not identified. She wanted to jump, but kept still. It was probably Pallas searching for her place of power. Saturn prayed it would be enough to help. Her place of power had been adept at healing, but had yet to prove very useful at something more tangible. It was a wild and capricious beast locked within her and seemed dedicated to tantalizing her with possibilities and then snatching them away.  
  
"Oh!" Pallas gasped, drawing a look from Saturn. "Beautiful Incantation."  
  
An invisible hand cupped underneath Saturn and Pallas. Gently the two girls were lifted up into the air. They floated into the elevator shaft and down, calmly lowering into the dark abyss. Saturn kept a tight grip on Pallas' hand so the connection wouldn't break. She figured Pallas was doing all the work, but Pallas believed they were both helping and whatever maintained the illusion was what Saturn would do.   
  
The roof of the elevator car appeared below them. Saturn was prepared to land on it, but the hand calmly swept them out of the shaft and set them down a few feet away. Pallas opened her eyes and looked up at Saturn with awe.  
  
"What is it?" Saturn asked.  
  
"Miss Saturn Ma'am," Pallas whispered in stunned amazement. "Pallas thought only the Queen and the Princess had a center that powerful."  
  
Saturn gaped at Sailor Pallas. She had to be wrong. It must have been adrenaline and her desire to find her Michiru-Mama boosting her PKE power. Pallas was just mistaken. There was no way she was as powerful as Queen Serenity or Usa.  
  
Shaking herself, Saturn eased them back into the shadows of a small alcove and looked around. Farther up the tunnel, women in chains dressed in rags were chipping away at the walls of rock with absurdly heavy tools that resembled picks. They were dirty and worn, straining with muscles pushed past fatigue to lift their picks and strike the rock. The tools were clearly designed to be heavy so the prisoners couldn't raise them high enough to sever chains or menace a guard. All they could do was peck away at the walls, listlessly tossing ore into a mine car, until they were called to halt - - or until they dropped.  
  
"What is this place?" Pallas whispered.   
  
Saturn didn't answer. She was busy noticing that each woman in chains had another like characteristic besides gender: green hair. Urgency flooded through her tiny body and she was about to bolt forward. Only a shadow cast by a lantern stopped her. That shadow belonged to an angry-looking guard who came into view. The woman strutted along at a leisurely pace, brandishing a stun club, observing the mine slaves as they worked. Now and then she'd give a quick jolt to one who wasn't working as fast as the guard thought she should. The guard wore a mask in addition to her uniform. It made Saturn wonder if there were harmful gasses down here or if it just protected the guard from inhaling dust from the ore.  
  
When the guard turned down a connecting tunnel, Saturn silently signaled Pallas and the pair eased down the other tunnel. None of the slaves acknowledged their presence. They only worked like mindless drones. Further into the tunnel they found more of the same. Dehumanized wretches forced to work hard long hours in this sunless enclosure with no hope. Saturn began to flash back to the images in her dream. Just thinking about it made her skin crawl.  
  
"Please don't be afraid, Miss Saturn Ma'am," Pallas said suddenly. "It was just a dream."  
  
Resisting the urge to question how she knew that, Saturn delved on into the tunnel. Michiru's aura seemed to surround them, but Saturn couldn't see her. Was she here? Had Saturn somehow been wrong?   
  
"Miss Saturn Ma'am!" Pallas hissed in alarm.   
  
Saturn looked to where the girl pointed. One of the slaves had collapsed onto the floor. Looking at the unmoving form for a few seconds, Saturn noticed the woman wasn't breathing. Was she dead? Had she worked until she died? And how could her fellow slaves just continue to work around her body? Saturn felt her throat closing up. Nervously she pressed on.  
  
"Do you sense anything, Pallas?" Saturn asked, talking to assuage her growing doubt and to forget the horror she'd just witnessed. "It seems like she's here, but I just can't seem to find any trace of . . .!"  
  
Saturn stopped so suddenly that Pallas bumped into her. The violet senshi turned to her right. A mine slave was listlessly pecking at the rock with her pick. She was dirty and worn like the others. Her body was thin, desiccated by overwork and deprivation. Her green hair was stringy and matted to her face and hollow eyes stared out without seeing. The only difference between her and the hundreds of other unfortunates in this mine were the tattered gloves she wore that had once been white and the remnants of a green sailor kerchief that stubbornly clung to her shoulders.  
  
"Michiru-mama?" Saturn tried to ask, but her voice faltered in the middle.  
  
The wretch stopped. Her head slowly turned. Vacant eyes gazed up at the girl.  
  
"M-Michiru-mama," Saturn gasped. She fell to her knees by the wreck, taking the filthy woman in her arms. At once tears overflowed and spilled down Saturn's soft cheeks.  
  
"Hu - - taru?" the slave whispered.  
  
As quickly as her tears began, they ended. Galvanized into action, Sailor Saturn looked around for cover. The footsteps of a guard could be heard.  
  
"Michiru-mama, get up," Saturn pleaded, trying to pull the woman who had once been Sailor Neptune to her feet. "Please, we have to go! We have to get you out of here! Please get up!"  
  
Michiru looked at her; if she was able to comprehend what Saturn asked, she lacked the strength to comply. Saturn and Pallas lifted the woman to her feet with some difficulty, only to see her legs sag under the weight of her own body. Michiru flopped against them and only Saturn holding her up kept her from sinking back to the ground.  
  
And the guard drew closer.  
  
Dragging Michiru along the ground, Saturn and Pallas got her to cover behind a depression in the tunnel wall. The pair flattened themselves and Michiru against the wall, hoping they wouldn't be spotted. The scuff of the guard's boots against the ground grew closer and closer. Noticing Pallas begin to quake, Saturn silently folded her hand over her companion's mouth so a whimper wouldn't betray them. If forced, she would fight - - but Serenity avoided conflict whenever she could and Saturn knew it was an ideal worth living up to.  
  
"Hey!" they heard the guard call and as one their hearts thudded to a stop. "Give me a hand here!"  
  
"What have you got?" another voice echoed down the tunnel.  
  
"Another body. Give me a hand with it, will you?"  
  
"Stinking, worthless," muttered the other voice. "I can't wait to get rotated topside."  
  
"Yeah." Suddenly there was the spit of a stun club. "What are you looking at? Get to work!"  
  
As Saturn and Pallas tried to will their breathing to silence, they heard the dead slave's body being dragged off. Tense moments followed as they both strained to hear anything besides the dull impact of pick with rock. Finally they were both sure the guards were gone. Saturn relaxed her grip on Pallas' mouth.  
  
"Can your mommy make it back to the elevator?" Pallas asked quietly.  
  
"No," sobbed Saturn. "She's too weak. Oh Mama, what did they do to you?"  
  
"Maybe we can carry her?"  
  
"She's too heavy for us. We barely got her back here."  
  
As Pallas watched, Saturn wiped her nose on her glove. The girl noticed her partner seemed to reach a decision.  
  
"What are you going to do?" Pallas asked.  
  
"Heal her," Saturn replied. "As much as I can. Maybe we'll have a better shot to get away that way." She turned to Pallas. "While I'm doing that, I'm pretty much going to be defenseless. I need you to guard our backs while I'm healing her. Can you do that, Pallas?"  
  
Pallas nodded. "Pallas will do all she can. Pallas will be a good senshi and you and Vesta and the Queen and everybody will be ever so proud of her. Pallas promises."  
  
"Thanks," Saturn smiled. Then she set to work.  
  
Kneeling down next to the prone Sailor Neptune, Sailor Saturn tried to will herself to calm. It was difficult. Seeing Neptune in this awful state was almost more than she could bear. Part of her wanted to curl up and cry. Part of her wanted to slice every guard in this hole in the ground into ribbons and dance in their blood in vengeance.  
  
That was the part that scared her - - the part she called her 'Mistress 9' part - - the part she faced down at times like this with the words and actions of Queen Serenity. Thinking of Queen Serenity always helped her find peace and calm and it worked again. She sought out her place of power and connected with it. Once the connection was made, Saturn reached out to Sailor Neptune with her hands. She touched the thin, hard muscle of her upper left arm.  
  
Instantly Saturn felt like she was being pulled down a drain. Sailor Neptune was so bereft of spirit and will as well as physical energy she unconsciously acted like a dry sponge in water. Saturn had to will her healing energy to flow from her in moderation or Neptune threatened to suck her dry.  
  
In exchange for the healing energy Saturn poured into her adoptive mother, the girl received the woman's ills. Pain swept through Saturn's frail body. She felt the gnawing fatigue, the barren hunger, and the ache of muscles and joints pushed past their breaking point. She felt too the separation Michiru felt, from the advancing of the spirit she felt when she practiced her arts, from friends and lovers, from even the nourishment of the light of the sun. She felt herself sinking down in a quicksand bog of despair brought on by torture, physical labor without break and the severance of her link with the one person above all else that gave her hope and the will to live. Saturn felt like her heart would burst at any moment just from the sheer overwhelming agony of it all.   
  
But she didn't shy away. She had more to give and her Michiru-mama needed it.  
  
Sailor Pallas watched the proceedings with both sympathy and wonderment. Saturn's power was a power she had never witnessed. The stress and cruelty that were so visible on the older woman's face began to gradually fall away. There was a faint glow to the woman's skin now, a glow of reinvigoration that perhaps only an adept such as Pallas could see. At the same time, Pallas could sense some of the anguish Sailor Saturn was enduring. It hurt like the pain she remembered going through at ten at the orphanage at Sao Paolo. Back then she always ate candy whenever she could find it and refused to brush her teeth so as not to cover up the wonderful aftertaste. And one day her tooth began to hurt and she had to have it filled. It hurt like that and Pallas felt sorry, sorry for them both.  
  
A noise alerted Sailor Pallas to danger. She turned and saw the shadows of an approaching guard on the tunnel wall.  
  
"Miss Saturn ma'am!" she whispered urgently. "There's a bad lady coming!" But Saturn was lost in healing and didn't hear her. Pallas bit her lower lip. "All right. Pallas will protect you." And the blue senshi stood straight and defiant, guarding the others with her body.  
  
The guard threw her light that way and illuminated the defiant form of Sailor Pallas.   
  
"Who are you?" she demanded. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"You go away!" Pallas shouted. "Pallas won't let you hurt her friends!"  
  
The guard advanced on Pallas. Her stun club was out and ready to use.  
  
"You stay back!" Pallas demanded. "Stay back or Pallas will make you!"  
  
"You can't be that stupid," sneered the guard. She saw Sailor Pallas' mouth scrunch up into a frown.  
  
"Beautiful Incantation!" shouted Pallas.  
  
With a wave of her hand, rock and ore swept up from the floor of the tunnel and began relentlessly pummeling the guard. Taken by surprise, the woman fell into a defensive crouch and retreated several steps until the assault died away.  
  
"Pallas warned you," Sailor Pallas said.  
  
The guard pressed a button on her belt that set off an alarm around the mine. In moments four other women in guard uniforms joined her.  
  
"What's this?" one asked.  
  
"Some sort of intruder. Watch out. She had weird powers."  
  
The five guards advanced on Pallas. They formed a looming wall over the small senshi and Pallas concluded another rock assault wouldn't be as effective.  
  
"Beautiful Incantation!" she yelled, gesturing with both hands.   
  
An invisible wall shot out, slamming into the five guards with the impact of a battering ram. The quintet was bowled over, sent sprawling into working slaves and an ore car. When one would rise to charge, Pallas would knock her down with a gesture-controlled mental force. Again and again she knocked them down, but again and again they would rise up. Pallas began to wonder how long it would take before they retreated. She was beginning to tire.  
  
If only Vesta were here.  
  
A small, round metallic object, almost like one of her old magic balls, landed at her feet. Pallas looked down, momentarily distracted. Then the ball exploded with a powerful localized concussive force. Sailor Pallas was thrown backward into the wall, battered and temporarily blinded, then sank into unconsciousness. The guards approached cautiously.  
  
"I think she's down," one said.  
  
"Get a collar on her," ordered another.  
  
"Hey, there are two more over here!" a third guard said, pointing out Neptune and Saturn.   
  
Saturn dimly felt the stun club jam into her left shoulder. An electric shock passed through her body, numbing her and throwing her consciousness into a black abyss. She keeled over at the foot of the guard who stunned her.  
  
"Traitor," sneered the guard.  
  
Continued in chapter 7 


	7. The Captives Of Ravenheim

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part Seven: "The Captives of Ravenheim"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
They saw it together. In the corner of the room, wearing the chains and costume of a harem slave, was a lanky frame and a shock of short blonde hair. Mars heard Serenity gasp in alarm even as she realized the truth.  
  
"Haruka!" Serenity cried out. Instantly she was at the woman's side, kneeling next to her.   
  
But Haruka turned away and hid her face.  
  
"D-Don't look at me," the woman whispered in shame. And at that moment Serenity wished she had no eyes.  
  
"Haruka!" Serenity sobbed, nearly in tears as she clutched the chained woman's shoulders. "Haruka, it's me! Your little Dumpling!" She tried to turn Haruka's shoulders so the woman would face her, but Haruka resisted.  
  
"What did they do to you?" Mars whispered in shock.  
  
"Please," Haruka choked out, tears burning tracks down her cheeks as she cringed in Serenity's grasp. "Please go away! I don't want you to see me like this!"  
  
Serenity released her and Haruka folded up into a little ball, crying bitterly. Serenity and Mars exchanged horrified glances, both helpless to know what to do next.  
  
"Let's get those chains off of her," Mars said, her voice hoarse with emotion.  
  
"No!" Haruka cried fearfully. "No, don't take my chains! It's not allowed! They'll punish us all!"  
  
"Stop it!" fumed Mars. "You're not a slave! You're a senshi! That means something!"  
  
Serenity stopped Mars with a hand on her arm. Mars glared at Serenity, but found herself calming in the face of the queen's charitable countenance.   
  
"Haruka," Serenity whispered, gently rubbing the woman's shoulders, "I don't know what happened to you since we last saw each other. Obviously it's something terrible. I can try to help you if you'd like. I won't force you. You're not a slave and you can say 'no'. But we have to leave this place first." Haruka began shaking her head. "I won't take any arguments about that. Haruka, you don't belong here. You don't belong in these chains. Please, let me take you away from . . ."  
  
"Mom!" Sailor Moon hissed across the room. "They've been monitoring us!"  
  
Serenity and Sailor Mars turned to see Ceres growing algae on a small lens embedded in the ceiling in the corner of the room.  
  
"We need to go, Serenity," Mars told her.  
  
"You're right," Serenity replied sadly.   
  
When Haruka refused to budge, Serenity simply levitated the chained woman into the air and carried her across the room. Mars guarded her flank. Sailor Moon and Sailor Ceres burst into the hall ahead of them, ready to take on any opposition.   
  
A guard squadron stood at the end of the hall. The moment Ceres and Sailor Moon stepped out into the hall, a guard fired a long, cylindrical weapon. Two shells ejected and when they reached a set proximity to their targets ejected weighted netting. The nets each snared Ceres and Sailor Moon, the weights at the end wrapping the netting around their bodies and throwing them to the floor. When Serenity and Mars entered the hall, two more shells were fired at them.  
  
However, Serenity stopped them in mid-flight with a wave of her hand. While she held Haruka aloft, the queen swatted the shells down with her free hand.  
  
"Surrender in the name of Queen Desiree!" yelled the squad captain, another black-haired woman.  
  
"I don't wish to fight you," Serenity replied. "But this woman is one of my people. We are leaving and I am taking her with me."  
  
"So she means that much to you?" the captain asked.  
  
Instantly Haruka started shrieking in pain. Serenity and Mars whirled to look. They saw the blue glow around her collar had intensified. It had the look of an electric arc now. That and Haruka's rigid body language told them a painful electric shock was passing through her body.  
  
"Stop it!" wailed Serenity. "You'll hurt her!"  
  
"Then surrender," replied the captain.   
  
Serenity hesitated, torn between her desire to free her friend and her desire not to see her hurt.  
  
"Perhaps enough haven't suffered for your actions," the captain said.  
  
Then the weights on the netting holding Sailor Moon and Sailor Ceres took on the same blue glow. Both girls began to scream in pain as electricity seized their young bodies.  
  
"USA!" Serenity shrieked. She tried to remove the netting, but it resisted her influence. Panic-stricken, Queen Serenity turned back to the squad captain, appealing unsuccessfully for mercy from the cold, hardened woman.  
  
Mars saw Serenity's reaction and recognized it all too well. She didn't have to be psychic to know what her queen was thinking. Simple experience told her everything. And before Serenity could act, Mars acted.  
  
"Divine Combustion!" Mars snarled.  
  
Everything combustible on the members of the squadron began to ignite, from leather belts and boots to cloth uniforms, from the netting inside the shells to in some cases hair and eyebrows. Instant panic ensued as each member of the squadron from the captain on down realized she was on fire. Weapons clattered to the floor as they frantically tried to stamp and pat out their burning clothes and accessories.  
  
"Mars," Serenity gasped, unnerved by what she saw.  
  
"Don't start!" snapped Mars. "Just get the kids loose and let's get hnnnnngh!"   
  
To Serenity's horror, Mars pitched forward onto her face and began convulsing. Two metal prongs stuck out of her back. Glancing behind them, Serenity saw another squad of guards had flanked them. Just then the tip of an energy gun pressed to the queen's temple.  
  
"You people have impressive powers," the captain of the first squad hissed. Serenity could see she had singed eyebrows and a cold look in her eye. "But I don't think even you can stop an energy blaster at this range. And even if you can, I doubt your companions could endure another charge. Want to find out?"  
  
Serenity closed her eyes. "No," she said.  
  
"GET THEM ALL COLLARED!" the captain snapped.   
  
Members of the second squad hurried to obey as Serenity let Haruka softly drop to the floor. The woman cringed against the wall as Serenity felt one of the metal collars snap around her neck. She watched Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars and Sailor Ceres suffer the same fate. Once the collars were affixed, wrist and ankle shackles were attached to them all.  
  
"Please don't hurt them," Serenity pleaded softly. Her reply was the tip of the blaster digging into her temple again.  
  
"DO-NOT-SPEAK-UNTIL-YOU-ARE-ASKED-A-QUESTION," warned the captain. Serenity lapsed into silence. "Get them on their feet! The Queen is going to want to see them!"  
  
As energy weapon fire exploded against the rock formation behind her, Sailor Venus crawled off on all fours. Her hope was to get out from the place she was pinned down in without running into more guards or having someone sneak up on her in this vulnerable position. After scrabbling across the ground for several meters, she came to a second line of rock formations that were past the mine entrance. She looked around for indications of what would be the best direction to go in. Venus wanted to move toward the mine and catch up with Sailor Vesta, but couldn't see any means of doing it without risking a new attack.   
  
Then she caught sight of something to her left. Two women were crouched next to a rock formation, gesturing to her. They were both dressed in tatters, much like the prisoner Serenity had earlier freed. Venus cast a furtive glance behind her. The energy fire was slowing. They'd be advancing on her last known position soon. Trusting her instincts, Venus turned left and scrambled over to the others. When she got there, she found one of the women was the prisoner Serenity had freed.  
  
"Please hurry!" the other woman said. She was an older woman, but still thin and malnourished like her younger companion. "We can get you to a safe haven. But we must go now!"  
  
"But I've got friends in the mine," Venus protested.  
  
"Then they are lost to you!" the older woman told her. "We must go!"  
  
"But," Venus began. The two women refused to wait. They scrambled off and if Venus chose not to follow, it was her misfortune. Venus chose to follow.  
  
The trio came up to a large rock resting against the foot of the mountain range about half a kilometer from the mine entrance. The two strangers pressed their arms and backs against the rock and together shoved it aside. Behind it was the mouth of a cave. The two strangers went inside and Venus reluctantly followed.  
  
"What is this place?" Venus asked them as the trio walked down the dimly lit cavern.   
  
"The only free place on the surface of Ravenheim," the older woman proclaimed.   
  
They entered a larger portion of the cave. Inside were about a dozen other women, all tattered, dirty and thin. They looked up at Venus with hollow eyes, their arms crossed over their ill-clad chests. Venus noticed every woman had green hair.  
  
"You were the one Serenity freed earlier, aren't you?" Venus turned and asked the younger woman. She shrank back, cowering before Venus, her eyes seeking the floor.  
  
"Y-Yes, Mistress," she mumbled fearfully.  
  
"Veda," the older woman said. "She is not your mistress. You are a free woman now." Veda nodded meekly. "You must forgive her. Though her collar is gone, the years of training and violence she has experienced remain. It's the same with all of them." The woman stood between Veda and Venus. "I am Kamural.  
  
You are one of the ones who freed Veda?"   
  
Venus nodded. "Sailor Venus."  
  
"Where do you come from, stranger?"  
  
"Another place - - called Earth."  
  
"I know not this place. Is it far?"  
  
"Pretty much," grinned Venus. "It's a different world. We traveled through space to get here because two of our people are on this world."  
  
The others murmured in low tones.  
  
"Beings from another world?" Kamural wondered aloud. "Is such a thing possible? I thought the only other world was the cloud city."  
  
"It's not only possible, it is," Venus said. "Do you remember a ship, a metal craft that maybe flew through the air? And maybe it crashed?"  
  
"There have been several incidents such as you say," Kamural nodded. "Queen Desiree has a weapon in the cloud city - - I have only heard stories of it, but I have seen the bright flash it makes. And after the flash, a flying craft as you say will fall to the ground."  
  
"What happened to them?"  
  
"The Royal Guards are quickly there. I have seen them take people out of these crafts. Some are women - - some are different. They are people, but not women."  
  
"Probably men," mused Venus. "You've never seen a man before?"  
  
"What is 'man'?" Kamural asked.  
  
"You don't have men on this world? God, this is Hell!" Venus shook herself. "What happens to the people?"  
  
"The 'not-women' are killed. The women, if they have exotic hair, are taken to the queen. If not, they go to the mine."  
  
"This mine - - is it some sort of prison camp, or forced labor camp or what? And do all the prisoners have green hair like you?"  
  
"Yes," Kamural said bitterly, pushing a strand of her own green hair away. "There are two races on Ravenheim: those of black hair and those of green hair. Once, when I was a girl younger than Veda, the green-hairs lived in the Cloud City. We created art and song, we built tremendous spires into the heavens. It is said that the pillars on which the Cloud City rests upon were built by my people long ago."  
  
"What happened?" Venus asked.  
  
"Tantalla," Kamural said with naked loathing. "Tantalla was a black hair. She discovered a new use for corbite. It gave power to her machines and through her machines she gained control of the cloud city. My kind was forced to the planet's surface. But she needed more corbite to power her machines and hold her power. And she was brilliant and evil enough to devise the collar."  
  
"What does this collar do?" Venus asked, absorbed in the story.  
  
"Deadens the will to resist," Kamural told her. "If the collar is locked upon you, you are prisoner until freed."  
  
"It controls the mind?"  
  
"No. You can still think. But it is hard for you to act. You want to break free. You want to fight, but it is hard. Any resistance you make is feeble." Kamural cast a glance at the others. "That is why they starve and torture us until we are broken. Then we are cast down into the mines to dig more corbite until we die." Venus looked quite unsettled by that information. "You need not worry about suffering that fate, Sailor Venus. With your golden hair, you would not become a mine slave."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Tantalla's machines sent an energy wave that changed some of each race. Before, hair was either black or green. Now there are those with yellow or brown. Tantalla's daughter, Desiree - - she rules the cloud city now - - is attracted to these other colors while green repels her. Those of such exotic beauty as yours become slaves of the queen's harem or are given to her inner circle."  
  
"My two friends," Venus interjected. "They may have - - fallen from the sky after one of the flashes from the cloud city. Maybe you saw them? One had yellowish hair, like mine, but shorter. The other had green hair."  
  
"If they were captured," Kamural said, "your gold-haired friend is in cloud city, perhaps in the queen's own harem. Your green-haired friend is in the mine - - if she still lives."  
  
"Then I've got to get her out," Venus proclaimed. "If you're willing, I could use your help."  
  
"I have no weapons to fight with, save my brain and my hands," Kamural shook her head. "It is all I have been able to do to rescue one or two of my people per season and keep us out of the hands of the Royal Guards. I give them shelter and try to undo years of torture. It is all I have been able to manage for fifteen summers - - to keep the flame of resistance alive until the evil spawn of the hated Tantalla and her kind can be driven from our rightful home." She saw Venus was disappointed with this response. "I will shelter you if you wish to stay. I have nothing else to offer you."  
  
"I understand," Venus nodded. "Do you know of another way into the mine?"  
  
Kamural shook her head.  
  
"OK," Venus nodded and turned to go.  
  
"Sailor Venus, do not venture into the mine," pleaded Kamural. "Only death or slavery awaits you."  
  
"Can't do that," Venus grinned. "That's what being a senshi is all about."  
  
Before she could go, Veda suddenly reached out and snatched her hand. The girl bowed, pressing her forehead to the back of Venus' hand.  
  
"Mistress!" she said desperately. Then her boldness dissipated. "Thank you." She released the hand, but continued to kneel.  
  
"You want to thank me?" Venus grinned. "Buy my next album."   
  
And then she was gone up the tunnel toward the light.  
  
The green-haired mine slave pressed up against the wall in fear. She watched the four guards lock collars onto the strange child-like girl with blue hair and the other young, strangely dressed girl that seemed of their own race. She prayed to deities that she no longer recalled that the guards didn't punish her for being with them. She could remember so few things anymore, but the bite of the shock club was quite a clear memory.   
  
At the same time, there was something familiar about their garb. The white blouses, the matching skirts and bows, the colorful kerchief on their shoulders buzzed at the back of her brain. She reached up absently and felt the tattered green kerchief on her own shoulders. And the young waif with black hair - - what had she called her - - Hu-taru? Why did she seem so familiar? Why did she recall that name when she couldn't even recall her own anymore? And there was another name - - Hu-ruka - - and they all seemed to go together. Why? Why couldn't she remember?  
  
Manacles locked around the waif's delicate wrists. They were going to kill her. No black hair dared aid a green hair. The punishment was always death. Didn't she know that? Why take such a risk for someone as worthless as her, the slave wondered. She passed her grubby hand absently over her stringy locks. She knew why, somewhere in the vacant space her brain used to inhabit. It was the same reason she'd known the waif's name. It was the same reason the waif had hugged her and it felt so familiar and so right. This Hu-taru was important - - she didn't know why, but the waif was important.  
  
Two guards grasped Sailor Saturn by the arms and hoisted her limp form up off the ground. They were going to carry her off. They were going to kill her.  
  
"NUHH!" grunted the mine slave that had once been Michiru Kaioh. She lunged up at them, grabbing at the elbow of the nearest guard. The guard's response was quick and brutal. The shock club jammed into Michiru's chest and the charge flung her back against the shaft wall.  
  
"Keep your filthy hands off me!" roared the guard, brandishing the club.  
  
"You want another one? Do you?" Michiru's hands went up over her face, trying feebly to ward off another blow. "Stinking green hair!"  
  
"Let's go," her partner said. "The queen will want to see these two."  
  
"Yeah," the guard nodded. "I hope I get to see this traitor executed."  
  
"NUHH!" Michiru sobbed. She couldn't remember what, but she sensed she was about to lose another precious thing in her life.  
  
As the four guards turned to go, Saturn and Pallas in their grasp, they saw an amazing sight. From almost out of nowhere, something began to elongate out until it took the shape of a polar bear up on its hind legs. Since polar bears didn't exist on Ravenheim, they didn't know what it was - - aside from the fact that it was huge and looming over them. A paw lashed out and one of the guards hit the floor, blood gushing from claw-marks raked across her face.  
  
Training clicked into action for the guards and they drew shock clubs. Energy blasters were prohibited in the mine for safety reasons. One of the guards lashed out with the shock club, but just as suddenly as it appeared the polar bear was gone. Only one of the three guards had managed to follow the motion of the transformation and looked at a white mouse on the ground. The mouse didn't stay a mouse long, though, transforming into a goat and savagely butting the guard back into the wall. She struck her head against the rock and sank down.  
  
The remaining guards swung their clubs again, but again the goat disappeared into a smaller animal, this time a bird flitting around the ceiling of the shaft. Once more the change was short-lived. The bird became a scorpion, dropping down onto a guard's face and stinging her in the cheek. Whirling away from the pain, the guard flung the scorpion to the ground and it changed into Sailor Vesta. While the stung guard screamed in pain and toppled to the ground, Vesta remained splayed on the ground near her, dizzy and panting. The remaining guard advanced on her, the shock club up and ready to taste the young senshi's flesh.  
  
Continued in chapter 8 


	8. The Bid For Freedom

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part Eight: "The Bid For Freedom"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
Jolted from her place of power so violently, Sailor Saturn for a time bordered between consciousness and unconsciousness. Her vision was cloudy, her mind jumbled and her stomach threatening to pour its contents out from self-protection. She was face down on the ground, but that fact didn't register immediately. Sounds could be heard, but what they were and who was making them couldn't penetrate her disconnected senses. It was as if her body was sending her imput, but there was no brain to receive it.  
  
She clenched her fists and forced down the nausea. Blinking three times, her vision restored enough to see what was going on. Her back was stinging like a colony of wasps were doing a victory dance on it. Saturn looked down at the ground and recognized the dirt as the floor of the mineshaft she'd been in. There was something else, though, that she didn't immediately recognize.  
  
"Chains?" she thought to herself because she hadn't connected with her voice just yet. "Who chained me? Aren't these what . . .?"  
  
Recalling that thought made her think of her Michiru-mama. With that the entire missing period of her memory came flooding back: finding a broken and degraded Sailor Neptune laboring in chains in a mine, her desperate attempt to heal the woman enough to escape the guards, and the sudden jolt in her back that sent everything black.  
  
"Mama!" she whispered, frantically looking around. Sailor Pallas was on her right, unconscious and wearing the same collar and chains the slaves wore. Beside her were two of the guards. One had horrible slashes across her face. Both were unconscious.  
  
She forced her eyes to scan the rest of the area. A third guard was convulsing on the floor of the tunnel, a gruesome welt on her cheek. The fourth guard was advancing on - - was it Sailor Vesta - - her shock club poised to strike as the senshi struggled to get up and failed. Vesta was in a bad way and couldn't defend herself.  
  
Back Saturn went to her place of power, trying to summon a mind bolt. It was hard. She was still worn from healing Michiru. The electric jolt still jumbled her nervous system, making it difficult to calm her thoughts and at the same time suppressing her adrenal function. Saturn strained desperately as the guard prepared to strike Vesta. She could feel something coming, but sensed it was too weak and too slow.  
  
"NUHHHH!" the shriek echoed through the shaft. It barely registered in Saturn's ears before she witnessed the blade of her own glaive plunge through the back of the guard about waist high. At first Saturn wondered if somehow she'd done it. Then she spotted the filthy hands fall away. Following them, she spotted Michiru falling back against the tunnel wall, clutching her head in agony. Her hands shook from whatever was hurting her. The collar around her neck glowed blue in the darkness.  
  
Vesta had recovered enough to crawl over to Pallas. The senshi turned her sister over, fear and anxiety coloring her features. Pallas slept like Sleeping Beauty. She seemed even more innocent asleep than when she was awake.  
  
"Pallas?" Vesta whispered, gently caressing the girl's cheek in an attempt to rouse her.  
  
"Vesta," Saturn gasped out. "Are you all right?"  
  
"Yeah," the other senshi wheezed. "Just kind of overdid it - - too many transformations in too short a time." She looked down at Pallas again. "Saturn, what happened to her?"  
  
"Don't know," Saturn sighed. Why did she feel so weak? Did the electrical jolt hurt her that much? "Vesta, we have to get out of here. There's no telling how soon more guards will come!"  
  
"Right," nodded Vesta. She pulled Pallas up, ready to carry the girl on her back. "Can you walk?"  
  
Saturn tried to get up.  
  
"I feel so weak," Saturn said. "It's like something's sapping my strength."  
  
"Yuh," Michiru grunted. They both turned to the wretch, still leaning against the tunnel wall. "Yuh. Colluh . . ."  
  
"The collars?" Saturn whispered, feeling around her throat. She felt the unyielding metal and knew she was in the same fix as Pallas, Michiru and all the other slaves in the mine.  
  
"Who's that?" Vesta asked.  
  
"M-Michiru-mama," Saturn choked out. Vesta's gasp of alarm made her wince. "Vesta, can you transform into a horse or something and carry us out? I'm not very steady right now and Mama and Pallas are worse off than I am."  
  
"Nothing big enough to carry three people," Vesta told her. "All those transformations took a lot out of me. The most I could carry is one right now and I'm not even sure I could do that."  
  
Saturn looked down. What, she wondered to herself, would Queen Serenity do in a spot like this?  
  
Retracing her steps cautiously, Sailor Venus made her way back to the mine entrance. However, near her old position, she stopped short. Crouching behind a rock, Venus peered out. Several women in black guard uniforms occupied the spot where she and Vesta had once crouched.  
  
"I'm not going to get in that way," Venus thought. She absently rubbed the wound on her stomach when it began to itch. "And I don't want to tangle with those blasters again. Guess I'll have to try to circle around to the side."  
  
Backtracking, Venus began heading to her left when she was out of sight. There was a small collection of rocks near her on her left that would give her some cover in the otherwise open, barren terrain.   
  
"Wonder if I could burrow into the mine shaft from the side with my Crescent Beam?" mused Venus as she scurried along. "It's a lot stronger than it was in my teen years."  
  
Just then she felt her senshi communicator vibrate in warning. Venus knelt to the ground and cupped her hand around it to shield the holographic image that was about to display from being seen by anyone else.  
  
She expected a picture of one of the other inner senshi. Instead, she got a holographic printed message telling her that Mercury was sending out a distress call.  
  
"Damn it!" Venus cursed softly. "Who do I help first?" Venus shook her head. "Ah, the price of popularity."  
  
Venus gazed over to where the mine was, agonizing on her decision.  
  
"Sorry, kid," Venus thought, reversing her course and following the communicator homing signal. "I hope you know what you're doing down there, because I've got to help the senshi I KNOW is in trouble."  
  
Mercury's hand surreptitiously moved away from the send button on her wrist communicator. As she did, she noticed the sudden discomfort she was in.  
  
"It must be the collar," she thought, bending down to help Sailor Jupiter. Jupiter was just now recovering from a taser strike.  
  
"What's going on?" Jupiter rumbled. "Who hit me? And-and what are these chains. . .?"  
  
"Are you all right?" Mercury asked with more than just a doctor or a teammate's concern.  
  
"Stand at attention!" roared a guard. Her foot lashed out and the boot caught Mercury in the chest, shoving her to the ground.  
  
"You . . .!" snarled Jupiter. She rose up, lunging at the guard, but just as suddenly crumpled to the ground in pain. Her collar was glowing a deep blue.  
  
"Jupiter, don't!" shrieked Mercury. "The collars are neural inhibitors! They sap the will and any act of aggression or disobedience causes pain in the person wearing them!"  
  
Jupiter looked over at her sluggishly. The collar was ravishing her strength and will, but Jupiter was fighting it. Another guard came over, seized Jupiter's chains up by her throat and hauled the senshi to her feet.  
  
"This one giving you trouble?" sneered the guard.   
  
"Take this collar off," Jupiter hissed through clenched teeth, "and I'll kick your fat tail."  
  
"Jupiter, don't fight it!" Mercury pleaded. "You'll only make it worse! We have to cooperate for now!"  
  
"Please, Sensei Jupiter-sama!" Juno added to the chorus. "We-we can't fight it! Listen to Sensei Mercury-sama!"  
  
"Didn't - - teach you kids - - to give up," Jupiter gasped out, her body being ravaged by the collar's effect.  
  
"That's because they're good little slaves," the guard holding her said. "Give me a few weeks and I could make you a good little slave, too."  
  
Jupiter tried to lunge at the woman, but all it accomplished was wrenching a loud groan of agony from her.  
  
"Jupiter, please!" Mercury cried. "The more you fight, the more it will drain you! You must stop!"  
  
But Jupiter doggedly fought on until she roared out another impotent groan of pain and frustration, then collapsed, hanging limply from the chains the guard held.  
  
"Sensei!" gasped Juno.  
  
"She's all right," Mercury said, her face twisted with worry. "It looks like it's just exhaustion. Oh, Jupiter, you can be so stubborn sometimes."  
  
"Did you see the head of hair on her?" the guard said to her partner, letting Jupiter crumple to the ground. "Too bad she's destined for the queen's harem."  
  
"Yeah, I wouldn't mind hanging on to her," the partner replied with a grin.  
  
"A month, tops, and she'd be licking my hand," the guard smirked. She turned and slowly walked toward Mercury. As she did, the woman unholstered her energy pistol. "This traitor, however, doesn't even have to dirty the Cloud City with her presence."  
  
"Traitor?" Mercury asked warily. "Please explain."  
  
"You attacked your own," the guard said with a disgusted sneer, "to defend THIS!" She jabbed an accusing finger at Sailor Juno. "This - - lowborn green hair! You turn on your own kind to side with that!"  
  
"My own kind?" Mercury asked, perplexed. Then the light went on. "My hair color? This planet's entire social strata's basis is hair color? You can't be serious!"  
  
The guard's response was a jaw-rattling backhand that flung Mercury to the ground. Her attacker stood over her, the pistol pointed directly at her.  
  
"Sensei Mercury-sama!" Juno cried. She took a step forward, then instantly sank to her knees with nausea.  
  
"Ami!" Jupiter bellowed. She lunged forward from her knees, but sank to the ground again, tremors overtaking her long form.  
  
Mercury looked up into the barrel of the energy pistol. She knew she had to move or she would die in a single moment. But the collar kept her pinned down, robbed her of the strength to move out of the way. She strained to push her will past the neural inhibitor in the collar, but couldn't do it. And if she couldn't move fast enough to avoid the blast, logically . . .  
  
"Makoto," she whispered. Makoto will be devastated by this - - that thought ran through her mind.  
  
"Crescent Beam!" echoed through the plain. The guard didn't manage to look up in time and felt the energy force slam into her chest high. The woman was flung backwards. She hit the ground hard and sagged into unconsciousness.  
  
Her partner crouched as the beam tracked toward her, drawing a concussion grenade from her belt. She studied the beam's movement and prepared to dive under it, then heave the grenade in the direction of her attacker. But when she tried to move, she found Sailor Jupiter's arms clamped around her ankle, rooting her in place. Despite the blue glow of the collar, Jupiter doggedly held on. The guard looked up just in time to see the beam strike her. The force hammered her into the ground and she groaned softly as she embraced oblivion.  
  
Two more guards ran up from their sentry posts near the group, but Venus made short work of them with her beam. Juno, Jupiter and Mercury pulled themselves up with some difficulty as Venus ran up.  
  
"Got your message," Venus grinned in relief. She lightly grasped the chain running from Mercury's neck to her wrists. "Hey, I believe in accessorizing, but isn't this a pretty bold statement?"  
  
"Joke all you want, I don't care!" beamed Mercury. "I'm just glad you got here when you did!"  
  
"Yeah, Blondie," Jupiter panted loudly, rising to wobbly feet. "Your timing is excellent."  
  
"What's wrong with you?" Venus asked. "You look like you just fought the Tokyo gravity ball team and lost."  
  
"It's the collars," Mercury explained. "They suppress resistance. The more violent the resistance, the more damaging the suppression."  
  
"So I suppose you want me to get them off, huh?" Venus smirked. Mercury and Jupiter glared at her. "Only because I'm in a hurry." She gave Mercury's collar a close look.   
  
"Sensei Venus-sama, where's Vesta?" Juno asked.  
  
"One crisis at a time," Venus scowled. "Where's the release mechanism on this thing?"  
  
"I imagine it's an electromagnetic seal," Mercury said impatiently. "There's probably a key control mechanism in or on one of those belts the guards wear."  
  
"Right," Venus nodded. She pulled off a guard's belt. "How's those uniforms for a fashion statement, huh? Neo-classic Gestapo." She looked at the belt. "There's three buttons. Which one?"  
  
"I don't know," Mercury said.  
  
"OK, I'll choose one."  
  
"NO, DON'T!" gasped Mercury. Then the collar and shackles popped off of her.   
  
"Hey, first time!" smiled Venus.   
  
"Venus!" roared Mercury. "You had no idea what that button was for! It could have been an alarm of some sort - - or - - or a self-destruct signal for the collars in case of insurrection!"  
  
"But it wasn't!" huffed Venus. She pointed the belt at Jupiter and Juno and popped their shackles off. "A little credit, huh?"   
  
"Absolutely reckless!" Mercury fumed.  
  
"I prefer to think of it as skill," Venus sniffed haughtily. "Come on! Vesta and maybe the others are stuck down in a mineshaft. They may need our help!"   
  
Queen Serenity, Sailor Mars, Sailor Moon and Sailor Ceres were marched down the hall toward the royal court. Their collars dug into the flesh of their throats and their shackled wrists hung limply in front of them. Due to the chains running down to their shackled ankles, the quartet was forced to take small, mincing steps. The eyes of the three senshi darted from side to side, vainly searching for some opportunity for escape to present itself. All they saw were their booted, black uniformed escorts. Serenity's eyes were cast downward.  
  
"Nice going, Mom," muttered Sailor Moon.  
  
"They were going to kill you three," Serenity whispered. "What was I supposed to do?"  
  
"Fight back. You can do just about anything, Mom. You could have changed those nets into lace doilies."  
  
"Maybe. Maybe not; I couldn't take the risk."  
  
"Wouldn't take the risk," Sailor Moon corrected her.  
  
"Usa," Mars said, in a patient, knowing voice, "your mother won't risk another person's safety. It can be - - inconvenient sometimes, but it's part of who she is and you just have to accept it."  
  
Sailor Moon scowled.  
  
"So, tell me somebody has a plan," Ceres inquired. "I mean, begging your pardon Your Majesty, but can't you just make these chains go away?"  
  
"Something's interfering," Serenity said. "The power is there, within me. I - - just can't seem to focus on it."  
  
"I think these collars have something to do with it," Sailor Moon told her. "They're doing something - - affecting our minds." She glanced over at her mother. "I told you that you should have fought back."  
  
"Brat," Serenity mumbled under her breath.  
  
The door opened and the prisoners were led in before Queen Desiree. Desiree sat on her throne, curled up like a relaxing feline, eyeing the prisoners like a feline would eye a mouse. Harem slaves sat on either side of her. Her gaze seemed predatory when focused on Sailor Moon and Sailor Ceres, but changed to contempt when it moved to Serenity and Sailor Mars. Almost as a reflex, she preened on the thrown, absently running a jeweled hand over her shiny black hair. The hand trailed across her throat and down her breastbone.  
  
The prisoners were halted fifteen feet from her.  
  
"Kneel," snarled one of the guards. Serenity obeyed. The others had to be forced.  
  
"So, Queen Serenity," Desiree said with a calm voice, though her eyes flashed anything but calm, "trespassing, assaulting my guards and trying to steal my property? This is a different side of you, far different than the 'diplomatic' side I saw earlier."  
  
"Haruka is not your property," Serenity said, her tone sad and weary. "She is a free woman and my friend."  
  
"She resides on my planet," Desiree said, eyes flashing and her lips pulling into a fierce grin, "and she wears my chains. That makes her my property."  
  
"And am I now your property?" Serenity asked.  
  
"If I so choose," Desiree volleyed back. "I welcomed you as an equal due to your station. You disrespected that gesture by skulking behind my back and any consideration your station demands is now gone." Desiree slid off her throne and walked down to the kneeling prisoners. Her hand sought out Serenity's face. "You are a comely woman. You have a pleasant face and such beautiful hair." Her hand glided over Serenity's scalp. "But I have so many golden hairs already. Another one would just bore me."  
  
Desiree turned and began caressing Sailor Moon's face and hair.  
  
"But you," Desiree gasped, her eyes dancing with excitement as her fingers ran through Sailor Moon's pink hair. "Never have I witnessed a creature as lovely as you. You are like nothing I have ever seen before! You will make a splendid addition, as will this one," and she nodded at Ceres.  
  
"Please, leave my daughter out of this!" Serenity cried. "Your quarrel is with me! She has nothing to do with it!"  
  
"Daughter?" Desiree smiled in wonder, turning back to Serenity. She looked at Sailor Moon again. "Yes! I see the resemblance now! Perhaps I was wrong to dismiss you." Desiree looked back at Serenity, the gears of thought turning in her head in a way that made both mother and daughter uneasy. "Perhaps I do have a use for you after all."  
  
Desiree walked over to where Mars knelt. Instantly her mouth hardened and her gaze began to smolder.   
  
"Why?" she asked Mars. "Why do you turn upon your own kind? Does it mean nothing to you?"  
  
"You're not 'my kind'," Mars replied, communicating as much contempt and loathing as she could with every syllable she spoke. "And if you were, I'd seriously consider slitting my throat!"  
  
Desiree glared silently at her. Mars didn't shy away, despite her inferior position. Finally Desiree broke eye contact.  
  
"The traitor will, of course, be executed," Desiree pronounced. "Captain, see to it."  
  
Upon a signal from the captain of the guards, two guards seized Mars under her arms and dragged her away from the others. Mars offered some resistance, but couldn't mount anything effective due to the influence of the collar.  
  
"REI!" shrieked Serenity, turning and watching with horror her friend being dragged away. She turned back to Desiree. "No, you can't! You mustn't do it! Please! Please spare her, I beg you!"  
  
Desiree raised an eyebrow. "I like the way you beg. I was definitely too hasty in my judgment of you."  
  
Continued in chapter 9 


	9. The Rebirth Of Opposition

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part Nine: "The Rebirth of Opposition"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
Haruka Tenou sat in the corner of the perfumed, satin and silk apportioned dormitory, her head in her hands. The other harem slaves, the other possessions, the other pieces in Queen Desiree's collection of the exotic and the beautiful, ignored her as they usually did. Haruka was an off-worlder and those from off-world were looked down upon, even among slaves. It didn't matter to Haruka that she was ignored. She was used to it. Just like she had gotten used to so many things on this hellish world.   
  
That point had been brought to her attention again when she saw Queen Serenity again. For a fleeting moment, Haruka thought that an end to her humiliation had come. She thought Queen Serenity and her band could do the miraculous once again and liberate her from her purgatory. Instead the effort had only led to their capture while she lay on the floor and cowered in the face of the black uniforms that haunted her dreams. And now she was back where she started, a human plaything in silks and chains.  
  
Oh, how far she had fallen.  
  
"Michiru," she whispered absently to herself, "I'm glad you're dead. It means you can't see what I've become."  
  
Serenity had seen - - that was almost as bad. Serenity had sensed her shame, sensed all the memories Haruka tried to suppress. Even if she hadn't witnessed everything Haruka submitted herself to, every act that the once proud senshi would have reviled someone else for committing, she sensed Haruka's self-loathing. Serenity seeing her broken was almost as bad as Michiru seeing it.  
  
"And now it's going to happen to her," Haruka whispered.   
  
The thought chilled Haruka. Serenity was too delicate, too pure to fall into Desiree's foul hands. She meant too much to too many people. If she fell, what hope did anyone have, for Serenity was hope. And the others who were with her - - the younger ones looked familiar, but Haruka couldn't place them any longer - - they'd suffer the same fate. Except Sailor Mars - - Haruka knew what would happen to her. Mars' black hair would be a death sentence in Desiree's eyes. She'd seen it happen before, too many times before.  
  
It couldn't happen. She had to stop it. But what could she do? What little of her spirit that hadn't been broken by Desiree's police force was submerged by the metal around her throat. If she tried, they'd harm her. They'd do the awful things to her again. Haruka found herself breathing harder at the merest memory of them.  
  
But it was Serenity. She'd risked all to come for her. Haruka felt she had to do something.  
  
But what could a slave do?  
  
Her fingers absently felt along the seam of the collar at her throat. If something could be wedged into that seam - - and, as expected, she felt the nip of the collar at her brain, warning her away from such thinking. But if something could, and it was strong enough to force the jaws of the collar apart, then it might break apart.  
  
Nip, nip, nip, replied the collar.  
  
It was hopeless. She didn't have anything to wedge into the seam that was strong enough to pry the collar open. She'd be caught and punished. But another thought began prying its way into her mind like she imagined doing to the collar: Serenity. She had to try, didn't she? If she had a single shred of humanity left in her, she had to try.  
  
Nip, nip, nip, replied the collar. It hurt worse than before, but Haruka shunted it aside when she spied the hairpin on the dressing table. Ignoring the nip of the collar, Haruka forced herself up and trudged over to the table. The slave at the table spied her and shied away. Haruka ignored her. She seized the pin between fingers that tried to rebel. Sagging against the wall, fighting off artificially induced nausea, Haruka allowed herself to slide down into a sitting position. She waited cautiously until the other slaves in the harem returned to ignoring her. Then she stuck the hairpin under her chin and wedged it against the seam of the collar.  
  
The collar was a faint blue now. She didn't have to see it - - Haruka could feel its discipline. She wanted to quit, but found a little bit of strength left inside her and kept at it. All the while part of her mind worried and fretted, telling her that the guards would catch her and she'd be punished.  
  
Maybe she'd get lucky, she told herself. Maybe they'd kill her.  
  
It was the proverbial choice between two evils. Sailor Vesta barely had the strength left to carry herself to the mine elevator and freedom. Maybe she could carry tiny Pallas or Saturn. But she couldn't carry all of them at once. And the collars they wore prevented the other senshi from walking on their own.   
  
Saturn looked at Vesta. She could see Vesta wanted to save Pallas first, but resisted the impulse. That would mean leaving Saturn and Sailor Neptune helpless and exposed in the mine. What if more guards came? They'd be captured for sure. She couldn't do that to Saturn. Saturn saw this in Vesta's eyes and was grateful.  
  
The violet senshi wanted to send Vesta out with Pallas. Better two of them escape than none, for the longer they delayed, the better the chance all of them would be caught by more guards. But she knew as well as Vesta did that leaving the pair down in the shaft risked their recapture, for they were helpless to adequately defend themselves while shackled with the mind-sapping collars. She didn't want to condemn Neptune to falling back into the guards' hands, not when she was so close to freedom.   
  
What to do? Saturn looked to Vesta, hoping her fellow senshi would make the decision. But Vesta passed the decision right back to Saturn.  
  
"Nnnnnnnhg!" they heard Neptune moan.   
  
At first Saturn thought more guards had been spotted. Seeing nothing, she turned to her adoptive mother. Neptune was gesturing to Saturn's glaive, still sticking out of the back of the guard Neptune had impaled. Her collar was glowing a faint blue and discomfort was etched in her face. Insistently, though, Neptune pointed to the glaive.  
  
"The glaive!" Saturn gasped. "It can cut us loose!"  
  
"Are you sure?" Vesta asked.  
  
"Yes! And once I'm free, I can carry Mama!" Saturn felt the collar start to dampen her enthusiasm, but she pressed on. "You'll have to do it, Vesta. This collar won't let me."  
  
Vesta looked like she wanted to bolt. But her better instincts won out and she pulled the glaive from the guard's body. Saturn pulled back her hair, exposing her neck to Vesta.  
  
"This'll cut that metal?" Vesta queried, the bloodied blade quivering in her hands.   
  
"It'll cut anything," Saturn assured her. "Just - - be careful, huh? Cut slowly."  
  
"Sure!" Vesta swallowed. Saturn looked up at her. Ever since her attack on Sailor Moon, Vesta had been a shell of herself, wracked with guilt and doubt. Saturn could tell she didn't trust herself with the responsibility.  
  
"You have to do this, Vesta," Saturn urged.   
  
Grimacing, Vesta nodded. Saturn felt the still-fresh blood on the blade press against her neck and fought down revulsion. She glanced over at Neptune and saw the woman staring intently at the proceeding, trying to will it to work. Vesta moved the blade across the edge of the collar in a sawing motion. The blade bit into the metal while Saturn felt it slide against the skin of her neck.  
  
"Damn!" gasped Vesta. "It does cut anything."  
  
Emboldened, Vesta pushed in again, then drew the blade toward her. The blade bit further into the metal of the collar while Saturn held perfectly still. Using a sawing motion, it took five passes before the blade cleaved the collar. As it fell away, Saturn winced. Her hand went up to her shoulder and felt blood where the blade had grazed her.  
  
"Oh damn, I cut you!" Vesta gasped.  
  
"It couldn't be helped," Saturn told her. She held out her wrists. "Now cut these chains please."  
  
Once she was free of the chains, Saturn reclaimed her glaive. Her first order was freeing Neptune. By now Pallas had regained consciousness. Vesta immediately went to her.  
  
"You OK?" Vesta asked.  
  
"Pallas's head hurts," moaned the senshi, "and she feels sick."  
  
"That's the collar," Saturn told them. "Once you're free of it, you'll feel better."   
  
Her blade cleaved the collar around Neptune's neck and made short work of the chains. She turned to Pallas and in seconds had her fellow senshi free. Pallas and Vesta hugged and it was hard to tell who was happier to see the other. Then a noise caught Saturn's attention. She turned to it.  
  
Neptune was on her knees. She had a rock in her hands and was pounding on the collar with it. The look of naked bestial fury on her face was astounding. Saturn was taken aback watching Neptune pound on the collar in a sudden burst of ferocious hatred. Oblivious to anything else, Neptune just pounded on the now twisted metal.  
  
"Mama," Saturn whispered, crouching behind Neptune and holding her shoulders. Neptune's fury seemed to drain out of her body and she let the rock fall to the ground. "We have to go."  
  
"Mmmmm," Neptune nodded.  
  
With Saturn on one side and Vesta on the other, they helped Neptune to her feet. Following Pallas, the battered senshi headed down the shaft, barely noticed by the remaining slaves.  
  
The four senshi eased up against a rocky expanse at the foot of the mountain. At the head, Sailor Venus glanced around to make sure no one was watching them. They had purposefully avoided the mountainous area with burrows, since Sailor Mercury had detected life signs in them and concluded they were crude shelters for the mine slaves to sleep in when they weren't in the mines. Now Venus was seeking to avoid being spotted by any guards as they neared the mine.  
  
"There's a squadron of six up ahead," she whispered to the others.  
  
"That is what my visor reported," Mercury reminded her.  
  
"Then your visor gets a gold star," Venus shot back. "They look like they're suspicious of something. You suppose there are sentries missing?"  
  
"Hard to tell. Wait, look over there." Jupiter pointed past the mine entrance. Another guard was on the ground attending to three guards. "Figure Saturn and Pallas went through them getting in there?"  
  
"Yeah and left a mess for the others to find," Venus scowled. "Sloppy."  
  
"Well, they had other things on their minds. Any sign of them on your sensors, Mercury?" Jupiter asked.  
  
"I've got a fix on Saturn, Pallas and Vesta," Mercury told them. "They're in the second level south shaft, but they're all together. They seem to be moving toward a vertical shaft, perhaps an elevator, with a fourth entity."  
  
"Neptune?" Jupiter proposed.  
  
"I sure hope so," Venus muttered, staring at the guards from their secluded spot. She winced suddenly.  
  
"Your wound?" Mercury asked, sensing the wince without actually seeing it. "How does it feel?"  
  
"Burns like anything," Venus replied.  
  
"Oh dear, I hope it's not becoming infected. Let me have a look."  
  
"Later," Venus said. "I don't want anything to distract me. Those four could be coming out of that mine at any time."  
  
"They're going to run into those guards when they leave the mine, aren't they?" Sailor Juno asked.  
  
"Unless they know a second way out."  
  
"Well," Juno wondered aloud, "shouldn't we take the guards out now?"  
  
"No."  
  
Juno looked at Venus like she was crazy. When she got no reaction, she turned to Jupiter and silently asked for an explanation.  
  
"I think Venus wants to play it cautious," Jupiter began. "You see, we don't know who's with them down in that shaft. It might be Neptune - - but it might be a guard holding them at gunpoint. If we take out this squadron now, it could . . ."  
  
"It could warn the other guard holding the others!" Juno nodded.  
  
"And the situation could quickly degenerate into a hostage situation," Mercury said, finishing Juno's thought.   
  
"I see," Juno nodded. "But if it is Sailor Neptune, aren't we risking the guards up here firing on them?"  
  
"That's why Jupe and I are going to wait until the last second and nail any drawn weapons we see pulled," Venus told her, concentrating on the guards all the while. "They all have those shock sticks, but there's only two hand weapons. It's going to be close, but we can take them out before they get off a shot. Right, Jupe?"  
  
"Just remember, I've got the one on the left, Blondie," Jupiter replied.  
  
"You keeping watch with that computer to make sure we don't get flanked?" Venus asked Mercury.  
  
"Of course," Mercury replied, her eyes glued to her computer's display.  
  
"You three are just so efficient," Juno marveled.  
  
"Well, we have been working together for about a thousand years now," Jupiter smiled.  
  
"What have I told you about telling people my age," Venus quipped as she stared at her target.  
  
The elevator car brought the four senshi to the next level with a mechanized whir that echoed far too loudly for any of them to be pleased. Saturn thought about levitating everyone again, but decided against it. There were four to carry now and Pallas still looked a little woozy from her bout with the concussion grenade earlier.   
  
"Pallas," she whispered. "When this elevator gets to the top, be ready for trouble."  
  
"Yes, ma'am," Pallas said. The thought frightened the girl, but she put up a brave front.  
  
"Don't be scared," Vesta whispered. "You can do it." Pallas beamed back at her.  
  
Saturn glanced up at Neptune. She noticed rivulets of tears streaking the grime on the woman's cheeks.  
  
"Mama?" Saturn asked. Neptune shook her head, embarrassed.  
  
"She's crying because she's happy, Miss Saturn-ma'am," Pallas told her.   
  
"Probably happy to be out of those chains and out of this awful mine," Saturn mused.  
  
"Well that, too," Pallas said. "Pallas thought it was because she was with you again, Miss Saturn-Ma'am."  
  
Saturn peeked over to Neptune. In response, the arm that was draped over Saturn's neck tightened against her ever so slightly. The corners of Saturn's mouth twitched upward.  
  
"We'll get you out of here, Mama," Saturn choked out. "Don't you worry."  
  
The car reached the top of the shaft. Its occupants braced for hostile fire when the gate went up. When that didn't occur, they exited the car and headed for the mouth of the mine.  
  
Neptune let out a soft moan when the bright entrance to the mine was in sight. How long had it been since she'd seen the light of day, Saturn wondered. To think of her Michiru-Mama enduring this brutality just made Saturn see red.  
  
"Nnnnhh!" Neptune moaned sharply. She gripped harder on Saturn and Vesta's shoulders, bringing the girls to a stop. Pallas looked around curiously.  
  
"What's wrong, Mama?" Saturn asked.  
  
"Guh," Neptune stammered out, her mouth still refusing to work properly. "Guh-hards!"  
  
"Guards?" Vesta asked.   
  
"We took care of the guards when we came in," Saturn said.  
  
"But there were more out there when Sensei Venus-sama and I came up," Vesta reported. "Maybe I better scout ahead?"  
  
"No, I can't hold up Mama alone!" Saturn cried. "Pallas, can you sense anything ahead?"  
  
"No. When Pallas tries to listen for people's thoughts, they don't come," Pallas said apologetically.  
  
"Nnnn," Neptune hissed. She gestured up ahead. A shadow had crossed into the mouth of the mine.  
  
"Pallas will protect you, ma'am!" Pallas shouted. "Beautiful Incantation!"  
  
At her mental behest, a rock about the size of a fist flew up from the ground and launched itself down the tunnel. At the entrance, it audibly struck something. A groan was heard and the shadow fell away. Suddenly Pallas whirled on them.  
  
"Everybody get down!" she squealed. "Pallas heard a thought! They're going to fire on us!"  
  
"Supreme Thunder!"  
  
"Crescent Beam!"  
  
The four senshi in the mine looked at each other with growing elation. Hurrying to the shaft entrance, they could see five guards. One had a nasty wound on her forehead. A second was quivering from electric shock while a third held her hand as if a weapon had been shot from it. Sailor Mercury was freezing the other two to the ground.   
  
As the two groups reunited, Saturn eased Neptune to the ground. Mercury was by her side immediately, checking her as Saturn looked on with worry. Venus, Juno and Jupiter approached Vesta and Pallas. Instantly Vesta lowered her gaze.  
  
"I'm sorry for disobeying you, Sensei Venus-sama," Vesta said contritely. "I know you told me to wait - - but Pallas was in trouble. It turns out they all were. I know I could have made things worse, but I had to help them! Anyway, I'm sorry."  
  
"It's OK, kid," Venus said, a timid grin working onto her face. "Sure, what you did was dumb and reckless - - but you were doing it to help someone. Sometimes the only way to help someone is to be reckless. Comes with the job. I'm not going to slam you for that." Then she tried to affect a stern look and jabbed a finger at Vesta. "Just don't get cocky, kid. It worked - - THIS TIME. Next time you try it, you could get your head handed to you."  
  
"Yes, Sensei Venus-sama," Vesta nodded. However, she seemed almost reassured by the words than chastised.  
  
"How is she, Mercury-san?" Saturn asked.  
  
Mercury examined her, using her visor to take bio-telemetry from her.  
  
"Physically," Mercury began, "she's suffering from acute malnutrition. There's loss of bone density, degeneration of cartilage in all the major joints, even her tongue has shrunk from the condition. There's also multiple contusions, scarring and other evidence of physical mistreatment."  
  
"Can you help her?"   
  
"If we can get her back to Earth and into one of my medical units, I can relieve the effects of the malnutrition and regenerate her bone and cartilage damage. It won't be easy." She spoke directly to Neptune. "Michiru? Can you understand me?"  
  
Neptune nodded.  
  
"This is going to be a long process, probably a painful one. You've lost at least 15 kilos from the last time I saw you and most of that is muscle mass and bone density. I may not be able to bring you back to what you were. It will take a lot of work to get you close. Do you understand?"  
  
Neptune's mouth curved in an emotional frown, but she nodded.  
  
Then from out of their field of vision two hands seized Neptune by the arms. Mercury looked around and saw Sailor Saturn. Her eyes were rolled up into the back of her head and her shoulder length black hair flew out from her head like it had a static charge. Neptune gulped audibly, then her head drooped back and her eyes rolled up. The woman's mouth opened in surprise, but no sound came out.  
  
"Saturn!" gasped Mercury. Jupiter and Venus edged closer.  
  
"She's just trying to make her mommy better, Miss Mercury-ma'am," Pallas said.  
  
"Saturn, no!" Mercury gasped as she tried to pull Saturn away from Neptune. "The damage is too extensive! You'll hurt yourself!"  
  
Mercury pushed at the slight girl, but she suddenly became immovable. Jupiter leaned in to help, but together the two of them couldn't seem to budge Saturn. Stopping to glance at Saturn, Mercury found it was as bad as she feared. Stress lines were forming under Saturn's eyes and around her mouth. Deep furrows appeared in her forehead, distorting the Saturn kanji that appeared there as well.   
  
Juno and Vesta noticed Neptune's head slowly pulling erect. Her eyes were still rolled up in her head, making the woman still seem grisly and supernatural. But they could see her form filling out a little. The deathly blotches on her skin were healing, as was the ugly bruises and scars. Her sunken eyes began to look more normal as her cheeks filled out and even her matted green hair, though still dirty and stringy, was fuller and less brittle.  
  
Her shoulders began to shake. Slowly Neptune brought her hands up. They came to rest on Saturn's shoulders and pushed. At first there was no effect. Then the combined force of three adult senshi finally shoved Sailor Saturn away. Saturn rolled over onto her stomach, her arms curled up under her and her chest heaving like she'd run twenty miles. Mercury was instantly by her side.  
  
"Hotaru!" Neptune cried fearfully, her speech no longer slurred.  
  
"All her vitals are incredibly accelerated!" Mercury told them, feeling along Saturn's throat as she spoke. "Her body's going to burn out if they don't come down soon!" Mercury rolled to her feet, standing over Saturn. "Sparkling Tsunami!"  
  
With pinpoint control, Mercury coated the ground around Saturn's body with a thick layer of ice, surrounding Saturn with it in hopes the reduced temperature would slow her body metabolism and take her out of danger. Kneeling again, she returned to Saturn's side to monitor her while Neptune looked on in anguish.  
  
"Hotaru," Neptune sobbed. "Why? Don't you know I'd rather never be well than risk losing you - - not after we've just found each other again!"  
  
And everyone else could do nothing more than wait.  
  
Continued in Chapter 10 


	10. The Union Of Souls

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part Ten: "The Union of Souls"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
Oblivious to everything that was happening elsewhere, Haruka continued to wedge the bobby pin between the connected halves of her collar. She had been trying for an unguessed amount of time. Frustration was beginning to mount in the tall blonde. She shoved it aside. Discomfort was beginning to mount, too, as was doubt. That was the work of the collar, so she shoved that aside as well, though with far more difficulty than she liked. The image of her imminent failure loomed in the back of her mind like a spectral spirit, planted possibly by the collar and possibly by her own fatalist imagination. But doggedly she pressed on, fighting the image with the more recent memory of Serenity being locked into one of the foul collars, too.  
  
"What are you doing?" a voice whispered near her.   
  
Haruka turned her back to the voice, shielding her efforts, and glanced over her shoulder. It was Vontrell. She was from another planet - - Haruka had heard once, but forgot - - and had been downed by Queen Desiree's secret photon cannon as she and Michiru had. She, too, had fallen into slavery in Desiree's harem. With her milky pale skin, slim figure, delicate face with large pool-like red eyes and flowing pale white hair, she had caught Haruka's notice. Naturally Desiree found her 'exotic'. For a time, Vontrell had been Desiree's favorite - - Haruka knew what that entailed - - until the fickle queen acquired a new slave and forgot Vontrell.  
  
Vontrell was shunned by the native slaves of this place, just as Haruka was. She had suffered a fate similar to Haruka. Yet Haruka turned away, fearful of what Vontrell might do should she discover what Haruka was trying.  
  
"Are you trying to open your collar?" Vontrell asked. Her voice always reminded Haruka of the trill of a songbird, even after all that had happened to them.  
  
Haruka ignored her.  
  
"It won't work," Vontrell told her, placing a delicate hand on Haruka's shoulder. "The collars are permanent. We can't escape them." She fell silent for a moment. "Though I wonder if that's my thinking or that of this devil's-made device."  
  
Haruka kept working, grimacing as the collar nipped at her again.  
  
"You're very stubborn," Haruka heard the pale beauty say. It didn't sound like a condemnation. "Perhaps that will allow you to succeed where I have failed."  
  
There was a pause, as if she were waiting for Haruka to react. Haruka kept working on her collar.  
  
"I admit, I've resigned myself to living out my life in this wretched purgatory. I've - - done things that I never would have thought myself capable of when I was a free woman. Laid down with another woman - - oh how I have debased myself in the eyes of the Blessed Mokt. Perhaps that's why he's forsaken me. I have broken his commandment that only male and female shall mate. Or perhaps - - he just despises the weak."  
  
"We've all been weak," Haruka said softly, without looking at her, "in our own way. Don't blame yourself. We can only do what we're able to do."  
  
"T-Thank you," Vontrell said. "You're generous to say so."  
  
"Forget it. Actually you reminded me of something I learned a long time ago - - that being overcome by a superior force isn't a sign of weakness. It's just bad fortune. I kind of forgot that for a while."  
  
"It's easy to do," Vontrell said softly. "We fall so easily into despair. I don't know if it's these wretched collars or the agony of our lot here."  
  
Haruka continued to work on her collar.  
  
"Do you miss your love?" Vontrell asked.  
  
"Every day," Haruka whispered. "You?"  
  
"I had no love when I ran afoul of this place. I had many suitors. I miss that. I miss being pursued. I miss being courted. I miss the thrill of experiencing a new male." Haruka heard her shudder out a breath. "I've been here so long, though, that I can't recall why I was attracted to them. I have been in this place of no males for so long - - I can't remember what they look like."  
  
Dismissing her momentary sympathy, Haruka pressed on.  
  
"Can you still recall your male?" Vontrell asked.  
  
"I-I'm going to get out of this," Haruka said haltingly. "I have to. Too much is at stake."  
  
"Then, if he will still listen to me, I pray that Blessed Mokt grant you his aid."  
  
"Thanks, I guess." Haruka pressed on. "Vontrell - - when I get free, I promise I won't leave you behind."  
  
To Haruka's surprise, she felt Vontrell's lips press gratefully to her shoulder.  
  
With growing contempt, Sailor Moon watched her mother crouch at the feet of their captor, Queen Desiree, and beg for the life of Sailor Mars. She wanted her mother to do something to humble this arrogant queen, or to do it herself, but every time she considered such action, the girl felt suddenly listless and nauseous. No doubt Serenity was feeling the same, preventing her from turning the chains and collars into dust. And everybody knew how much her friends, or any life, meant to Queen Serenity - - certainly more than her pride.  
  
But she should be above this, the young princess thought irritably. It was embarrassing.  
  
"These collars are too tough," whispered Sailor Ceres, captive beside the princess. "I want to use my power to take control of the plants in this room, but every time I try I just feel so weak." She looked at Sailor Moon glaring at the queen. "How about you?"  
  
"Same here," Sailor Moon replied. "But at least I'm facing it like a warrior."  
  
"Queen Desiree, please!" cried Serenity. "You can't take Mars' life! It's not right!"  
  
"She is a traitor to her kind," Desiree said coldly. "Death is all she deserves."  
  
"Oh, please, won't you understand? We're all the same kind! All of us! Hair color doesn't separate us anymore than any other feature! We all have life! We all love and grow and feel! We're all humans! To help one person isn't betraying all the rest! It's enriching them!"  
  
"Again you preach this drivel to me," sneered Desiree.   
  
She looked around and focused on a scullery slave in the corner of the room. The woman wore tattered rags covering her modesty and the standard collar and chains. Her green hair was faded and her face and body were withered with age and abuse. She mopped absently, as if her mind had shut down from the drudgery of her life.  
  
"You! Slave! Come here!" barked Desiree.  
  
The scullery slave worked for several more moments, not realizing she was being addressed. One of the guards finally stomped over and slapped her. Once she realized she was being summoned, the woman scurried over on ancient legs and cowered ten paces from Desiree.  
  
"Do you see this - - thing?" Desiree asked Serenity, the loathing vibrant in her eyes. "This thing you claim we are all equal with? This THING owned my mother."  
  
Serenity stared up in surprise.  
  
"This city in the clouds was built by the green hair, her among them, but with the forced labor of my people. They bled us all dry and then tossed the empty husks over the side to land below. They grew fat from the sweat of my ancestors. But my mother was a brilliant mind, too brilliant for them to break. She found a way to turn the tables on these - - animals - - and allow my people to reclaim their dignity as beings and assume their rightful place."  
  
Serenity looked at the old woman. She seemed so sad and pitiful. It was easy to picture her having fallen far and endured much.   
  
"And you claim that such a thing deserves kindness? No. May I be struck dead before I show one of them mercy. And so shall any black hair who does the same."  
  
"Do you think she can talk her out of this?" Ceres whispered to Sailor Moon.  
  
"I guess if anybody can, Mom can," Sailor Moon whispered back. "I know I'd rather depend on my wand right now."  
  
"I'm very sorry for all you've endured, Your Majesty," Serenity said, head bowed. "You and your people suffered greatly from a terrible, undeserved fate. If I could ease your pain, I would without any thought of reward, for no one should have to go through such treatment." She then raised up her head and opened her blue eyes. They locked on Queen Desiree without showing any fear or malice. "But can't you see how your pain has twisted you? You've become exactly what you loathed in your oppressors. What does that gain? What can that bring besides more suffering and hatred?"  
  
"It gains me vengeance," Desiree said proudly. "If you saw the joy in my mother's face when her captors were finally in chains, ground beneath her heel, you wouldn't say such silly things."  
  
"But vengeance is a drink that steals one's humanity rather than enriches it, and leaves the person only thirsting for more. It only continues a circle of pain and revenge, oppression and pain, until everyone is consumed by it. Please, Your Majesty, for your own sake - - for the sake of your people - - stop the circle. Embrace your enemy and show them a better way."  
  
Serenity waited patiently, hopefully, as Desiree stared at her. Sailor Moon looked at her mother - - perhaps in a new light.  
  
"Either you are a fool," Desiree began dourly, "or you think me one and seek to mock me. I have heard enough either way." Desiree slid out of the throne and to her feet. She took two steps toward Sailor Moon, reaching out to the girl. "Come, my beautiful new slave - - I must show you your new duties."  
  
"USA!" Serenity gasped out. With a sudden surge of maternal desperation, the queen, still on her knees, lunged past Desiree at her daughter. Serenity's collar took on a deep blue glow and the queen grimaced, but it wasn't enough to quell the desire to shield her only child from harm. Sailor Moon reached out to her, equally desperate not to be separated from her mother, and two hands clasped.  
  
And the room exploded in light.  
  
A hair pin slipped from groaning, pain-wracked fingers. It bounced once on the marble floor, then skidded to a stop. Tired eyes looked at it. Haruka wanted to bend down and pick it up, but she just couldn't summon the energy to do it.  
  
"What's the use," she sighed. "It was never going to work."  
  
She felt Vontrell's hands caress her shoulders and the woman's chest press up against her back in sympathy.  
  
"Don't curse yourself, please," Vontrell whispered. "You did what you could."  
  
Haruka wanted to scream, curse, break something. She'd failed - - failed herself, failed Serenity and the others, failed Michiru's memory. But she couldn't muster the strength to do it. If it weren't for Vontrell's sympathy, she might begin crying again and that wouldn't help anything.  
  
"Share your warmth with me?" Vontrell asked.  
  
Haruka tensed. Was Vontrell asking what she thought Vontrell was asking?  
  
"Forgive me if I seem forward," Vontrell said, sensing Haruka's tension. "I don't know where that came from myself. I have always been attracted to males until I came here. This place - - the things I've been forced to do - - perhaps they've changed me somehow. I - - find comfort being near you. I think of you in ways I used to think of males."  
  
"Vontrell," Haruka began.  
  
"I have shocked you. I apologize. I meant no insult."  
  
"It's not that."  
  
"Then," Vontrell began, "perhaps you don't find me attractive."  
  
"No. You're easily the most beautiful woman in this room. But I can't. I won't dishonor the memory of Michiru that way."  
  
"Me-Che-Ru is your mate?"  
  
"Was."  
  
"I grieve for your loss. He must have been a fine male."  
  
Haruka found herself smiling at that, something she was amazed she could still do.  
  
"Your devotion to this Me-Che-Ru is humbling. Would that I had once known a devotion that strong. I will not tempt you further, Ha-Ru-Ka," Vontrell said. "But if ever you need the comfort of another, please seek me out. Your Me-Che-Ru would understand."  
  
Haruka felt a lump forming in her throat. Michiru would probably understand. Those words unleashed a dam of memories that flooded over Haruka, of the times they spent together, of the places they visited and the battles they fought. It brought back intimate times. It brought back the touch of her fine silken hand on Haruka's breastbone and the feel of her head against Haruka's chest, her nose buried in the sea-foam green of Michiru's hair. It brought back the gaiety of her laugh, the petulance of her frown and the gleam of triumph that twinkled in her eyes.  
  
Gods, she missed Michiru all the more. She didn't think it was possible to miss someone more than she had before, but she did. At once it seemed like a weight on her chest, threatening to crush it.  
  
"Do it," she whispered, choking back her tears. "Crush it - - do it and get it over with - - please!"  
  
Vontrell stared at her with curious sympathy.  
  
And then a miracle happened.  
  
"Usa?" Sailor Moon heard in her head.  
  
"Mom?" Serenity heard in hers.  
  
"Do you feel it, honey?"  
  
"The collars - - they aren't sapping my will anymore! I can barely feel them!"  
  
"Apart we weren't strong enough. Together, though, we can do it! Burst your chains, honey! Take all my energy and set everyone free!"  
  
"Maybe you better do it, Mom," Sailor Moon thought. "You've got more experience at - - being a savior than I do."  
  
"Honey, please don't doubt yourself. You've always done a fine job and you're just as suited to do this as . . ."  
  
"WOULD YOU JUST DO IT! Honestly, Mom . . .!"  
  
"Oh, all right!"  
  
Sailor Moon began feeling light-headed. She couldn't shake the sensation she was floating. Her first thought was how stupid it would be for her to faint at a time like this. It would only prove her parents' long contention that she wasn't ready to be Sailor Moon, as well as confirm one of her deepest fears.   
  
Then she looked down. She actually was floating. Her mother reached out and grasped her other hand. Sailor Moon noticed it was glowing like it was made of solid white light. Her mother's hands were the same. Looking up to her, Sailor Moon saw Serenity seemed composed entirely of light. There were no features save her large blue eyes and her familiar outline. Everything else was brilliance. She should have been blinded by the amazing brilliance Serenity (and apparently she as well) was giving off, but she wasn't.  
  
And before her eyes the chains and shackles that bound her wrists began to dissolve like ash in water. They simply changed to photons and slowly merged with the light. The chains and shackles around Serenity's delicate wrists similarly dissolved. Sailor Moon adjusted her gaze slightly to the right. Queen Desiree had fallen back against her throne. Her arm was up over her eyes, shielding them from the brilliance. Her mouth was pulled into an angry grimace.  
  
Beyond Desiree was the four slaves forced to sit by her throne. Sailor Moon watched one by one the chains and collar of each slave dissolve into mist. At first they were too busy shielding their eyes to notice they were free. But the truth dawned one by one on them. Sailor Moon looked next to the scullery slave. Her chains dissolved, too. The woman stared down at her hands, seemingly unable to comprehend freedom after so long in captivity.  
  
"I'm freeing everyone," Serenity replied to the unspoken question. "I'm destroying every chain and collar on the planet. No one will ever suffer from these wretched devices again."  
  
"Can you do that?" Sailor Moon asked.  
  
"I can now," and she gestured with her newly-freed hands. "Thank you for all your help, dear." Sailor Moon felt herself lowering to the ground. When she touched the floor, her glow was gone. She squinted back up at her mother. "I couldn't have done it without you - - Sailor Moon."  
  
Sailor Moon smiled timidly. "What should Ceres and I do?"  
  
"Stop it!" bellowed Desiree impotently from her throne. Sailor Moon could hear her now. "You're destroying everything!"  
  
"Find Mars and Haruka," Serenity thought-cast. "Bring them back here. It's past time we were leaving this place."  
  
Sailor Moon nodded. She gestured to Ceres and was off in the direction Mars was taken, Ceres behind her.  
  
"Aaaagh!" Serenity heard Desiree scream. In her mind's eye, she saw the green-haired scullery slave viciously attacking Queen Desiree with her mop handle, jabbing her with the end of it. She floated between Desiree and her attacker. The woman's eyes grew wide with fear and she drew back.  
  
"Please stop," Serenity told her gently. "Nothing is accomplished by such actions save injury and hatred."  
  
The woman fell to the floor, covering her head and cowering in Serenity's presence. It wasn't the reaction she'd hoped for, but Serenity accepted it. At least the violence was stopped. But when she turned to Desiree, she saw a fleeting glimpse of the monarch slipping out a panel in the wall.  
  
A laser blast lanced harmlessly through Serenity's form. She turned and saw the guards, weapons out and leveled at her.   
  
"No, no," Serenity said humbly, gesturing at them. "You might hurt someone." Her merest thoughts made the weapons in the guards' hands and on their belts vanish.  
  
Sailor Mars walked down the hall toward the execution chamber. She had spent the entire short trip searching for a means of escape. Seeing none, she'd spent her last few moments praying to the gods to grant her a trouble-free passage into the next life and to give their aid to Serenity.  
  
The tickle of the hairs on her arms was the first sign of it. She looked down just in time to see her wrist restraints dissolve. Her hand went up to her throat and found her collar gone. Her guards noticed at the same moment and began to draw their weapons.  
  
Her captors turned on her, unsure as to why the chains had evaporated from their charge, but ready to put down any hope she might have of escape. Sailor Mars, though, was too quick for them.  
  
"Fiery Perdition!" she yelled.   
  
Instantly a wall of flame surrounded each guard. The walls, circular tubes of crackling fire, were uncomfortably close. Each guard froze, fighting back panic.  
  
"I suggest none of you exhale too deeply," Sailor Mars said. "You might get singed."  
  
Then she ran off to help Serenity.  
  
Haruka felt it. Her hand traced up to her throat and felt it to confirm what she couldn't believe she felt. The weight of the shackle around her wrist was missing, too. She didn't want to believe it, fearing she'd finally let go of reality in her anguish over Michiru.  
  
"Ha-Ru-Ka!" hissed Vontrell. "The collars are gone!"  
  
She wasn't mad - - or else Vontrell was.  
  
"We're free!" Vontrell gasped.  
  
It had to be Serenity. There was no other explanation. Only Serenity could make the impossible happen. For the first time in a long, long time Haruka felt the length and breath of her free will rise and stretch from its long night's slumber.  
  
And Haruka felt something she hadn't felt for a long, long time. She felt angry. Climbing to her feet, her muscles flaccid from disuse, Haruka held out her hand. This was the final test.  
  
Her henshin stick appeared.  
  
"Uranus," she began, savoring each word, "Millennium Power Make Up!"  
  
Vontrell looked on in amazement as Haruka transformed into Sailor Uranus. The other harem slaves, excited and at once fearful over their sudden freedom, hushed and shrank away from the towering senshi. She radiated power. Her expression radiated vengeance.  
  
"World Shaking!" she demanded.  
  
Geo-force collected in her hand. Uranus flung it at the twin doors and the force ripped the doors into splinters, then bore through the wall opposite. Gasps of shock and fear sprang up among the newly freed harem slaves. Ignoring them, Sailor Uranus walked to the gaping hole in the wall and boldly stepped through the debris. Once in the hall, she strode purposefully toward the throne room.  
  
There were scores to settle.  
  
Continued in chapter eleven 


	11. The Fall Of An Empire

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part Eleven: "The Fall of an Empire"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
"Mercury?" Neptune asked, her voice a timid, pleading shell of the normally confident even tone it used to be. "How is she?"  
  
"The ice is having some effect," Mercury told her, the woman's concentration locked on her patient. "If she can just hang on until her vitals get within acceptable parameters, she'll make it."  
  
"Maybe I can help, huh?" Sailor Juno offered. She held out her hands. "Aqua Initiation."  
  
Before everyone, a cloud began to form over Sailor Saturn. Though the others were amazed, Mercury rightly concluded that Juno was collecting the water vapor in the air. When the cloud reached a certain size, it began dropping a soft mist of rain onto Saturn.  
  
"Yes, that should help," Mercury nodded, keeping track of the readings her visor was giving her.  
  
"That was a good idea, Juno," Jupiter told her. Juno flashed her a grateful smile, then returned to worrying about Saturn.  
  
Though the others seemed oblivious to it, Venus and Vesta noticed they were drawing an audience. From the nearby cave dwellings, some of the mine slaves had ventured out and were watching what was happening with amazement.  
  
"You know, that's the first emotion I think I've seen on any of them," Venus commented, "besides fear." She glanced over at Vesta. "It's sort of been the same with you."  
  
Vesta bristled for a moment, then caught herself and hung her head.  
  
"Look, you made a huge mistake," Venus said. "Then you overreacted in the opposite direction and became gun-shy. I hope Mercury hasn't been telling you not to get mad in those sessions of hers."  
  
"No," Vesta shook her head. "It's just - - you know."  
  
"You're scared it'll happen again. So are a lot of other people. But you're not worth anything to anybody living life scared, least of all yourself. I guess what I'm saying is it's OK to get angry. You just can't live your life angry, you know? You have to try for that happy medium. Try to be take-no-stuff angry instead of lose-your-head angry. That make any sense?"  
  
Vesta nodded.  
  
"And," Venus continued, her chagrin and embarrassment showing, "sorry for giving you the, um, the cold shoulder. You were in a rough way and, well, I, um, didn't make it better. Guess I lost my head, huh?"  
  
"Thank you, Sensei Venus-sama," Vesta whispered hopefully.  
  
"You know, that's kind of formal," Venus grimaced. "How about you just make it 'Venus' from now on?"  
  
"Really?" gasped Vesta happily.  
  
"Unless you'd prefer saying 'Beautiful and Talented One'."  
  
Vesta grinned and it made Venus feel warm.  
  
"Mercury?" Neptune asked again.  
  
Mercury reached over to Saturn. "Her vitals are in acceptable range. I don't see any signs of damage from the hyperactivity. Saturn?" She gently shook the girl. Saturn seemed to stir some. "Saturn, can you hear me?"  
  
"C-Cold," she heard Saturn faintly whisper.  
  
Instantly Mercury and Juno leaned in and pulled Saturn from the ice surrounding her. Then Neptune shoved in and pulled Saturn from Mercury's grasp. The woman cradled the slight young senshi against her barely clad body. Mercury was about to object, but decided it was probably what Saturn needed.  
  
"Let me warm you, Hotaru," Neptune said, cradling Saturn against her. She kissed the girl's forehead tenderly.  
  
"Mama?" Saturn whispered.  
  
"I'm here, Hotaru," Neptune told her, caressing the side of her head.  
  
"Mama, you're all right."  
  
"Thanks to you," Neptune told her. "Please don't ever do anything like that again. Please don't force me to think I might lose you."  
  
Saturn snuggled in against Neptune's breast. Her mouth curled into a tiny smile.  
  
Sailor Jupiter watched the tableau unfold with a warm smile of her own. Seeing Neptune cradle Saturn like that brought back memories of the way she once cradled her own long departed children centuries ago. She liked Neptune this way. The woman had always kept her guard up around everybody - - Ami had once explained it as a defense mechanism to prevent perceived loss of situational control. It was too bad, because she liked this particular side of Neptune a lot.   
  
A hand closed on her shoulder and shook Jupiter out of her reverie.  
  
"Jupe," Venus whispered. "Head's up." Jupiter turned and found more guards approaching. The slaves backed warily into their cave dwellings.  
  
"Look!" Vesta gasped, pointing up at the cave dwellings.  
  
Everyone looked, even some of the guards. They saw the collars and chains dissolve from the mine slaves shrinking away from the scene. A ripple of astonishment passed through everyone in the area, from slave to guard to senshi.  
  
"Figure its Serenity?" Venus asked.  
  
"Who else?" chuckled Jupiter.   
  
Astonishment seemed to breed panic in the guards - - several of them aimed weapons at the group. Venus and Jupiter tensed to strike first. Then another ripple passed through everyone and their weapons vanished from their hands and their belts just as the chains and collars had.  
  
"The Queen's working overtime!" marveled Vesta.  
  
There were a few moments of awkwardness between the two groups where neither seemed to know what to do next. Then Jupiter stepped forward.   
  
"Look," she said to the squadron of guards. "We don't want any more trouble. If you leave everyone alone, we'll leave you alone. But if you try something," and her lightning rod in her tiara began to crackle, "we'll stop you and it won't be pleasant."  
  
The guards looked to their squadron leader. Everyone recognized her as the one they'd first confronted, the one who'd escorted Serenity and the others to Cloud City. She didn't look like she wanted to back down. Jupiter saw the tension in her body language and knew she wanted to attack them, even if it was with her bare hands. She silently communicated to the woman that she was ready for anything the woman might try.  
  
And out of nowhere a rock sailed through the air and struck one of the guards in the side. Vesta immediately looked to Pallas, but Venus pointed them in a different direction. From out of the concealment of a rock formation, Kameral was angrily throwing rocks at the unarmed guards. Her collection of six freed slaves watched her in amazement, having never seen such open resistance of Royal Guards before. Heedless of her own safety, Kameral flung stones at the guards, allowing years of fear and frustration and hatred to wash over her until she drowned in it. One of the freed women then imitated Kameral, picking up a rock and flinging it at the guards. Another imitated her and in seconds five of the six were joining their leader in their assault on their former captors. Only Veda stood and stared, mystified by what she saw.  
  
"That's it!" screamed the squadron leader, her anger reaching a boiling point. "After them!" she roared, pointing at the women. "Weapons or no, we don't have to take that from a bunch of green hairs!"  
  
And the guards charged the refugees.  
  
- - -  
  
Sailor Moon and Sailor Ceres raced down the hall of the palace, hoping to head off the execution of Sailor Mars.   
  
"Do you know where we're going?" Ceres asked.   
  
"No!" Sailor Moon told her. "This is the way they came. If we hit a branch corridor, we'll just have to guess." Suddenly she stopped. "Somebody's coming. Get ready!" Sailor Moon summoned the Crescent Moon Wand.  
  
The clack, clack, clack of shoes on tile grew nearer and nearer. But it turned out to be Sailor Mars.  
  
"Mars! You're alive!" cried Sailor Moon.  
  
"Thanks to your mom busting us all loose," Mars said. "Where is she? Is she all right?"  
  
"She's back in the throne room cleaning up. We've got to find Haruka-san, first."  
  
The trio headed for the harem slaves quarters. When they arrived, they found broken doors and several freed slaves cowering in the corner.  
  
"Looks like someone else has been doing some busting," Ceres said.  
  
"Probably Haruka," nodded Mars.   
  
"Where do you suppose she'd go?" Sailor Moon asked.  
  
"Knowing Haruka? She'd head straight for Queen Desiree to settle up. Let's go. She'll probably beat us to Serenity."  
  
Sailor Uranus cautiously entered the throne room, ready for any opposition. She found several ex-slaves on one side of the room, some of whom she recognized from Desiree's harem, and several more black uniformed guards on the other. In between them was Serenity. She turned as if sensing Uranus and smiled.  
  
"Uranus," she said, coming up to her.  
  
"Where's Desiree?" frowned Sailor Uranus.  
  
"Gone," Serenity replied as if it was inconsequential.   
  
"We've got to find her."  
  
"Let her go. We need to help you first."  
  
"I'm fine," grunted Uranus.  
  
"No you're not," Serenity said, caressing the senshi's cheek with her hand. "I know what happened to you. Perhaps not in detail, but I know you're hurt. I can help you if you'd like."  
  
"TO HELL WITH WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!" snapped Uranus. "We have to find that bitch!"  
  
"Uranus," pleaded Serenity.  
  
"SERENITY, SHE MURDERED MICHIRU!"  
  
Uranus saw Serenity's eyes widen with surprise, then begin to water with overwhelming sympathy.  
  
"No she didn't," Serenity said softly, soothingly, caressing the woman's cheek again. "Michiru's alive."  
  
"W-What?" Uranus gulped out. Not a nerve in her body could work suddenly.  
  
"She's on the planet's surface," cooed Serenity. "She's alive, Haruka. I can feel her."  
  
The senshi's face twisted as a tidal wave of pent up emotion flooded over her.  
  
"She's alive?" Uranus asked.   
  
The strength went out of her legs and Serenity had to catch her and ease her to her knees. Her hands folded over one another and pressed to her chest. Uranus began sobbing openly. Serenity held her as she cried helplessly. Mars, Ceres and Sailor Moon entered and witnessed the scene. They looked to each other with confusion.  
  
"Thank you," Uranus whimpered, shuddering with sobs as Serenity held her. "Whoever gave her back to me - - thank you!" Serenity cradled the bigger woman as she continued to weep uncontrollably.   
  
And from off to the side of the door, where she had stopped after following Sailor Uranus, Vontrell watched. The woman was still processing all that she had seen and heard, for she had witnessed the depths of her fellow former captive's love and grief. She'd also learned that "Me-Che-Ru" wasn't male.  
  
"Desiree?" Mars asked, coming up softly to Serenity.  
  
"Gone," Serenity shrugged. She continued to hold Uranus.  
  
"All this time," sobbed Uranus, "I thought she was dead! I thought - - that damn collar didn't have to sap my will. When Desiree told me she was dead, I didn't have any will left to sap!" She turned to Serenity suddenly and grasped her arms desperately. "Is she all right? Is she hurt? What did they do to her?"  
  
"I don't know," Serenity tried to reassure her. "Let's go find her."  
  
"I think I can find our way back to the elevators," Ceres offered.  
  
"That won't be necessary," Serenity said, rising to her feet.  
  
"I know that look!" Mars reacted warily. "What are you planning now?"  
  
"Well if I tell you, you won't be surprised," Serenity said, flashing an impish grin because she knew it would irritate Mars no end. She wasn't wrong.  
  
Letting her head ease back, Serenity closed her eyes and spread out her arms. Her twin trails of hair began to rustle out from her, caught in a breeze only she felt. Serenity took on a silvery glow and everyone could feel through some sixth sense they couldn't name that reality was shifting.  
  
"What's the queen doing?" Ceres asked Sailor Moon.  
  
"I don't know. She never tells me anything."  
  
"Princess? How do you suppose Sailor Uranus and Neptune ended up here?"  
  
"Maybe they crashed. Maybe they landed here and were jumped."  
  
"Their craft was brought down," Vontrell said. The two young senshi turned to the milky-skinned beauty inquiringly. "Queen Desiree had a hunger for exotic beauty. When she could no longer satisfy herself with women from this planet, her scientists developed a photon cannon that downed passing spacecraft. I was shot down in such a manner and enslaved for her pleasure."  
  
"Couldn't she find a guy she liked?" Ceres scowled.  
  
"There are no males on this planet," Vontrell told her. "Ravenheim evolved as a single sex society. They reproduce asexually." Vontrell looked down. "I watched my pilot be savagely beaten to death at our crash site because they thought him inhuman and unworthy of life."  
  
Sailor Moon and Ceres exchanged horrified looks.  
  
- - -  
  
"Beautiful Incantation!"  
  
The charging guards slammed face first into an invisible barrier and fell back. Gathering their wits, they stared at nothing uncomprehendingly. The fugitives and Kameral stared in confusion, too.  
  
"Now you stop that!" demanded Sailor Pallas. "Miss Jupiter Ma'am told you all to be nice! And you better do it or Pallas is going to punish you!"  
  
Jupiter glanced at Venus with a wry grin. Venus was almost doubled over with laughter. And Vesta smiled proudly.  
  
"Have we fallen so low?" the squadron leader roared impotently. "Now children mock us? What god have we offended?"  
  
"Every god in the pantheon!" bellowed Kameral. "And praise be to them that I lived long enough to see you HUMBLED! I only pray I live long enough to see Desiree wearing the same chains I tore from the necks and limbs of these women!"  
  
"Stinking green hair!" snarled the leader, throwing herself up against the barrier Pallas had made.   
  
To her surprise, it was gone, for Pallas had dropped it not knowing it was still needed. The ex-slaves around Kameral drew back several steps. Kameral held her ground as the squadron leader grinned and tensed to lunge.  
  
"You don't seem to get it," they heard Sailor Jupiter say. Turning, they both saw her walking toward the squadron leader at a deliberate pace. "You're not in charge anymore and I'm NOT going to put up with you attacking anyone."  
  
"You think you can take me?" the woman asked, rising to the challenge as she regained her feet. "You don't even have black hair, half-breed."  
  
"I still owe you people for what you were going to do to Mercury," Jupiter said, getting nearer to her opponent with every step. "Now I owe you for that, too."  
  
"Shouldn't we stop them, Sensei Venus-sama?" Juno whispered to Venus.  
  
"I've seen Jupe when she's like this," Venus replied. "You're welcomed to try, but I won't be responsible for any limbs you lose." Juno gulped.  
  
"But," Vesta asked, "you're always telling us to keep our heads?"  
  
"She hasn't lost her head," Venus told her. "Jupe knows exactly what she's doing."  
  
When Jupiter got within reach of the squad leader, the woman lashed out with a lightning-quick right hand. Jupiter evaded it just as quickly, but didn't see the woman spin and launch a kick at her head until the last moment. Barely evading it, Jupiter was more ready for the follow-up kick. She shoved her opponent aside and launched a kick of her own. The woman blocked it and parried several thrusts Jupiter made. She countered when she could, blows Jupiter blocked or evaded. After a flurry from both combatants, they each hopped back and assessed the other.  
  
"Not so confident now?" the squad leader smiled. "Where are your grand pronouncements?"  
  
"I do my bragging after I win," Jupiter replied grimly.  
  
Out of the corner of her eye, Venus noticed one of the other guards grasping a rock with intent to throw it at Jupiter and throw the contest to their leader.   
  
"Crescent Beam!" Venus shouted. The golden energy beam lanced out and shot the rock from the woman's hand. She looked at Venus with surprise. Venus stared solemnly back and wagged her finger at the woman. The event didn't go unnoticed by the combatants.  
  
The squad leader growled and launched herself at Jupiter, peppering her with punches and kicks. It was a strange fighting style, like nothing she'd ever seen on Earth and Jupiter found herself being pressed back by the flurry. She landed several blows in between defending herself, but took several as well. Her opponent was strong and skilled, and her aggressive style seemed born of equal parts confidence and anger. Though Jupiter could launch an electrical attack and probably fell the woman, she didn't. That wasn't done in an honorable contest.  
  
Tiring of sparring, the squad leader ended her assault and focused her strength on a single blow. It sprang at Jupiter with the speed and deadliness of a cobra strike. Everyone watching thought the blow might fell Jupiter if it landed.  
  
It didn't land. Amazingly, Jupiter executed a phenomenal back flip. Her legs flipped up into the air in such an arc that her heels had to be eleven feet off the ground. Her face seemed to hover just over the fist as it sailed toward where she had been. Her opponent's face registered surprise as the hairs of Jupiter's ponytail brushed her opponent's forearm. Jupiter looked like an ice skater as she pirouetted in midair, her feet finishing a perfect arc and landing with a grace that belied the senshi's large frame.   
  
The squad leader turned back toward her foe just in time to get Jupiter's heel across her face, courtesy of the senshi's spinning roundhouse kick. The woman was forcefully spun to the ground.   
  
She looked up, her hand on her jaw. Jupiter stood over her, ready to accept her surrender, but willing to fight again if necessary.  
  
But the decision was taken out of her hands. Rocks began to rain down on her, on Jupiter, and on the squadron of guards nearby. Everyone looked up and saw the cave dwellers were responsible. No longer afraid of the black uniforms, they hurled whatever rock or stone they could lay hands on down on their former tormentors. Taking up the fight again, Kameral and most of her band began hurling rocks, too. Jupiter quickly retreated for her own safety.  
  
"We need to stop this," Mercury said, looking on from nearby. Neptune and Saturn watched behind her. "This could erupt into a full scale riot very quickly - - possibly even a lynching!"  
  
"Let them," Neptune whispered bitterly.   
  
"Neptune," Mercury began to protest.  
  
"Let every one of them die," Neptune reiterated. Saturn said nothing. She just watched the scene intently.  
  
The ex-slave girl Veda suddenly pointed up into the sky. Several people looked up and gasped. That drew more stares and with that more gasps. The rock throwing began to dissipate as more and more people looked up to see what was happening above.   
  
"It's the end of the world!" one of the guards softly cried.  
  
For them it truly was, for Cloud City was falling.  
  
Concluded in Chapter twelve 


	12. The Family Reunited

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,  
  
Part Twelve: "The Family Reunited"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
Everyone had been too preoccupied with the confrontation between guard and newly freed slave to notice it. Only when one of them looked up and saw Cloud City descending upon them did anyone notice.   
  
"The support pillars for the city have vanished!" Mercury gasped. Instantly she brought her visor out and scanned the region for an energy signature or some residual particulate matter.  
  
The rest of the people down on the ground were less concerned with where the pillars went. They were too busy running for cover.  
  
"COME ON, AMI!" bellowed Sailor Jupiter, grabbing her fellow senshi and hauling her to her feet. "STUDY IT FROM A SAFE DISTANCE!"  
  
"This is Serenity's energy signature!" gasped Mercury. "She caused the supports to disappear!"  
  
"Are you sure?" marveled Venus.  
  
"I recognize the Silver Crystal's energy signature," Mercury responded. "I've seen it often enough!"  
  
"What do you suppose happened?" Vesta asked. Unspoken was her worry over the safety of Sailor Ceres and, yes, even Sailor Moon.  
  
"It's not falling very fast," Sailor Pallas said. "Pallas estimates it at," and she took a moment to think, "less than a meter per second. That's not very fast, is it?"  
  
Everyone looked at Pallas except for Juno and Vesta. They were used to her doing complex math equations in her head. Juno focused on the descending city.   
  
"It isn't falling very fast," she confirmed. "Almost like it's being - - lowered." Venus and Jupiter glanced at each other.  
  
"Serenity," they nodded in unison. Mercury continued to study the phenomenon.  
  
"I can't wait to hear this," grinned Venus.  
  
The city came to within five meters of the ground. Then the entire city, a twelve-mile long complex built upon a metallic bed, miraculously hovered in the sky until the last of those on the ground could get out from under it. When it was clear, the metallic bed came to a gentle rest on the surface of the planet. The ex-slaves, having never seen the pristine metallic spires of Cloud City, gathered around in wonder. The planet-side guards all seemed dispirited by the collapse of their way of life and sat listlessly to one side.  
  
"I see something," Jupiter said, pointing to several shadowy figures emerging from the city. The area was already teaming with former residents of the city out to look at their new environment, for many black hairs of the city of the clouds had never witnessed the planet surface. Amid the city residents were six figures. It was hard to make them out at first.  
  
"It's the Queen!" Juno shouted.  
  
"And Ceres and The Princess?" Pallas asked excitedly. Juno nodded.   
  
"Is Haruka with them?" Neptune gasped out, climbing doggedly to shaky legs. Mercury offered to support her, but she pushed the woman away. Venus and Jupiter parted to give her a better look.  
  
Breaking through the other five gathered around her, between Sailor Mars and a strange woman with milky white skin and hair, was Sailor Uranus. Neptune let loose a strangled sob that was half-joyous and half-pitiful. She staggered several steps forward on legs still not that strong. Uranus covered far more ground than she could, so Neptune waited with outstretched arms and let her long lost lover and life mate engulf her like an ocean wave. The lanky blonde gathered her green-tressed goddess into her arms and their mouths locked in an embrace of passion and longing years denied. They crushed to one another, tears streaming down their faces, while Sailor Saturn looked on happily.  
  
The others noticed Queen Serenity being supported by both Sailor Mars and Sailor Moon. Naturally Mercury sprang into action.  
  
"Serenity, what is it?" she gasped as she ran up. "Are you injured?"  
  
"No, she just nearly fainted from doing too much," Mars said crossly, "because she INSISTS on turning a deaf ear to the people who love her and care about her welfare and who REPEATEDLY TELL HER WHEN SHE'S PUSHING HERSELF TOO FAR!"  
  
"Rei," Serenity sighed. She sounded very tired.  
  
"QUIET, DITZ! The next time I tell you that you're doing too much, maybe you'll listen! BUT I DOUBT IT!"  
  
"I'm sorry, Rei," Serenity moaned.  
  
"How many times does this have to happen, Mom?" Sailor Moon chimed in. "And you have the nerve to talk about me being stubborn and impetuous!"  
  
"I thought people had to be respectful when you were a queen," Serenity pouted. Sailor Moon transferred her half of Serenity to Mercury and the two senshi eased their charge down onto a rock.   
  
"You still haven't told us why you felt it was necessary to do that," Mars continued.  
  
"Because these people can't live in harmony if they're separated by such a distance," Serenity replied. Mercury was examining her bio-signs with her visor while Sailor Moon rubbed her shoulders. "All the people have on this planet is hatred and class division, and having part of the population living so far above the other only reinforces the division. Now they have to live together."  
  
"Yeah, or kill each other," Jupiter added.   
  
Serenity looked up to her and Jupiter motioned her over to a scene about fifty meters away. A black haired guard and a green haired ex-slave were fighting.  
  
"Michiru," Uranus choked out through her tears as she nuzzled Neptune's face with hers. "I - - they told me you were dead."  
  
"They tried," Neptune said, her own voice besotted with emotion, "but they couldn't do it. Not as long as I had one chance to be reunited with you." They kissed hungrily once again.  
  
"Michiru, you look so bad!" Uranus said when their lips parted again. "What did they do?"  
  
"Nothing that matters now. I'm back in your arms and that's all that matters." She looked up at Uranus. Her face grew grave as she looked into the mirrors of her mate's soul. "Haruka - - what did they do to you?"  
  
Uranus flinched and turned her face away.  
  
"Oh, Haruka, no," sobbed Neptune. She caught her lover's face in her shaky hands and caressed it, easing the woman's gaze back to hers. Unnoticed, Saturn's tiny face registered her shock as the gears of her mind turned and she added up the unspoken equation.  
  
"That's not important now," Uranus choked out. "We're back together again. I can beat it again. I can beat anything as long as you're with me."  
  
A flash of black hair caught Uranus's attention. A stray thought turned Pallas around. A momentary glimpse of purple out of the corner of her eye made Jupiter stop and look. The gleam of light on the point of a metal glaive attracted Vesta. They each saw Sailor Saturn march toward the city at an even, determined pace. Those natives who saw her approach fell away, for though they nearly all dwarfed her in size and weight, there was a look in her eye that made the blood of all who saw it run cold.  
  
"Hotaru?" Sailor Moon called out, looking up from her mother with concern.  
  
The violet senshi came to a stop within the shadow of the capitol city of Ravenheim. The afternoon sun cast shadows from the gleaming spires, shadows that seem to point accusingly at the slight girl with the big glaive. Saturn, though, was having none of it.  
  
Gripping the glaive with both hands, she raised the blade up over her head.  
  
The blade began its descent, "SILENCE GLAIVE SURP. . .!" Saturn's voice ringing out, the emotion in it betraying her smoldering rage and anguish. However, a gloved hand clamped around the handle and halted its fall. Saturn whirled around angrily and found Sailor Uranus had hold of her weapon.  
  
"Why did you do that?" demanded Saturn, her anguish rapidly overcoming her. "None of them deserve to live! NONE OF THEM! After what they did to you," she howled as sobs caused her upper body to tremor, "after what they did to Michiru-Mama? None of them deserve to see another day! NONE OF THEM!"  
  
Uranus sank to one knee and grasped Saturn around her upper arms. Everyone could see the pain she felt over Saturn's anguish. Behind them, Neptune was hobbling up as best she could.  
  
"Maybe not," Uranus said softly, tenderly, her compassion for Saturn almost a thing alive. "I'm not going to insult you by defending them. And I won't lie to you. I don't feel very charitable towards them right now. But please, Firefly, please don't do it."  
  
"Why?" Saturn sobbed.  
  
"Because," Uranus choked, "because I want something better for you, Firefly. It's too late for me. I've done too many things - - things that had to be done because I couldn't see any other way to accomplish the-the greater good I had to do. But I'm not proud of those things! I try to look at the people I saved and the evil I stopped and rationalize that it was all for the better, but some nights those things come back and they haunt me."  
  
Saturn looked at her, tearfully astounded.  
  
"I don't want that to happen to you!" Uranus cried. "You're still pristine! You can still have a better life than I had! But if you do this, no matter how much they deserve it, there'll be nights when you won't know any peace. I don't want that for you!"  
  
Saturn stared at the earnest fear in her adoptive 'father's' face. Suddenly she crumpled up into the anguished young girl that sometimes hid behind the sailor fuku and collapsed into Uranus' arms. Saturn cried on Uranus' shoulder while the elder senshi hugged her and comforted her, and while Neptune stroked her hair. And in the distance, Queen Serenity and Sailor Moon both wore identical grateful smiles, though neither noticed the other's expression.  
  
"I'm glad they were able to stop her," Sailor Moon whispered.  
  
"I'm glad they were able to learn it was necessary," Serenity mused. "There was a time when they wouldn't have stopped her."  
  
"DEMON!"   
  
The call echoed through the area, resonating against the metal of the black hairs' homes and the rock of the green hairs' shelters. Everyone turned. Atop a rock outcropping about thirty feet up was the deposed Queen Desiree. Her fine gown was tattered and ragged. Her hair was mussed and unkempt. Some of her fine jewelry was missing. But she stood defiantly on the rock, angrily glaring down at the people below. It seemed to many that she glared at Queen Serenity in particular. In response Serenity rose to her feet under the watchful eyes of Mercury and Mars.  
  
"Foul villain!" she roared. Everyone could see a metal device in one hand and a blade crudely chipped from rock in the other. "You have destroyed everything! You have taken paradise and cast it into the mire! Set back my people and my civilization a hundred summers! Are you happy, demon?"  
  
"I told you before, misery and hatred are not the blocks on which to build a paradise," Serenity said calmly. "All you create is a festering pool where hatred and cruelty breed and grow. That's what destroyed your 'paradise'. All I've done is given you the means to live together as one people. Please take that chance. Set aside your differences and live together in peace and respect. A person of your power and grandeur could work miracles to bring that about."  
  
"Live side by side with them?" spat Desiree. "Never! I'll wipe every last one of them off the face of this planet first!" As she yelled, Desiree shook the device in her hand.  
  
"Mercury, can you get an analysis of what that device is?" Mars asked.  
  
Mercury scanned it. "It seems to be a central processing core from a computerized device - - perhaps the processor from the device that controlled the collars. However it's not showing any power activity. The device is inert at the moment."  
  
"Genocide, Desiree?" Serenity asked. "Is this your 'paradise'? Abducting innocents from space to keep as playthings? Does this define 'paradise' in your mind?"  
  
"Why am I trying to reason with a half-breed like you?" Desiree snarled. "Take your traitors and your green hairs and your half breeds with you and go! GO! For if you stay, I vow to slit your throat with this very knife!" Desiree shook the crude knife at her.   
  
Dismissing Serenity, Desiree turned to the others.  
  
"Black hairs unite! We do not have to accept being cast down into the slime with inferiors! Rise up! Kill them! Kill them all! Tear them apart with your bare hands if you must! Leave none . . .!"  
  
Suddenly a shadow lunged up at Desiree from behind her. The deposed queen turned around and met the attack, the processing core falling to the rock and then tumbling down the side of the mountain. As the pair struggled, they twisted into the light. Serenity saw it was the scullery maid from the queen's chambers, the former ruler when the green hairs had been in power and the owner of Desiree's mother. One hand was locked around the wrist Desiree held the knife in, while the other locked around Desiree's throat.   
  
"Skulking black hair!" the old woman snarled like a wounded animal. "For years you held me in your foul chains and lorded it over me! For years you forced me to grovel to my inferiors! No more! Never again! Die!"  
  
As the crowd watched below, the two women struggled for advantage atop the precarious outcropping above and to the right of the mine entrance. Heedless of her own exhaustion, Serenity cast her hand out, trying to grab hold of the two and lower them to the ground. However her power wouldn't focus and she kept missing them. A small grunt of frustration escaped from her and alerted Mars to what she was doing.  
  
And then it was too late. The combatants pitched over the side of the outcropping and fell. Before Serenity could act, before Pallas could shout her phrase, before anyone could move, they fell against the side of the mountain. Bouncing away, their broken bodies prisoners of gravity, the two tumbled further. They glanced limply off the side of the mountain two more times before striking the ground with a soft thud. Mercury was about to go to them, but Serenity held her back.  
  
"There's nothing you can do, Mercury," Serenity said softly, sadly, when Mercury turned to inquire.  
  
Sadly she turned and walked over to Uranus and Neptune.  
  
"You'll both need a place to recover," Serenity told them. She smiled meekly. "I still have your quarters at the palace in Crystal Tokyo. Nothing's been disturbed."  
  
Uranus glanced at Saturn. "That sounds like a good idea."   
  
"I can only imagine the mental anguish and humiliation you both went through during your time here," she continued. "I can help you with that - - but only if you want me to. I won't force you."  
  
Neptune smiled. "Certainly, Serenity. The less I remember about being on this evil planet, the better. It's kind of you to offer."  
  
"But we can wait," Uranus interjected. She glanced at Vontrell. "There are about five or so off-worlders here that Desiree made slaves. When you're up to it, we need to send them back home."  
  
"Of course," smiled Serenity. Vontrell came up to Uranus.  
  
"Home?" she gasped, not daring to hope. "Can you really make this happen, Ha-Ruh-Ka?"  
  
"She can," Uranus replied.   
  
"I had given up hope," Vontrell began, then sobered. "Thank you. Even after my earlier words, you chose to help me."  
  
"Earlier words?"  
  
"Of my shame at being forced to become what you were all along. Of the condemnation the words of the Blessed Mokt has for females who lay with females. Please forgive me, Ha-Ruh-Ka. You are a fine person and generous and I gave you no reason."  
  
"It's all right," Uranus grinned. "I've heard worse."  
  
"Surely the condemnation of the Blessed Mokt can't be for someone like you and your Me-Che-Ru. No god so enlightened as the Blessed Mokt could condemn such devotion and passion as you and your mate have." Vontrell looked down. "I have much to think about when I return home."  
  
Uranus lifted Vontrell's chin with her hand.   
  
"Think about it later," Uranus told her. "Celebrate first. You lived through it. That calls for a party." Vontrell smiled. "Thanks for all your help. You did more for me than you know."  
  
Serenity was lost in concentration. Mars eased up next to her.   
  
"Are you up for this? Maybe you should rest a little . . ."  
  
"Oh, Rei, hush!" fussed Serenity. She walked up to Vontrell and touched the woman on the forehead. Vontrell was enveloped in a silvery glow and slowly faded away.  
  
"And just how much did this woman do for you?" Neptune asked. Her tone was neutral, but Uranus knew how good she was at controlling her tone.  
  
"Not nearly as much as you do for me," Uranus said, looking her love directly in the eye.  
  
Neptune examined Uranus as she digested the answer, then nodded and turned to Serenity. "We can leave whenever you're up to it, Serenity," Neptune told her. "I don't mean to push you, but I admit I'm eager to leave this hellhole."  
  
Serenity hesitated. She looked around. Black hairs and green hairs that weren't openly fighting were looking at each other with suspicion or naked loathing. Mercury sensed what she was thinking.  
  
"Is that ethical?" Mercury asked. "We've destroyed their entire system of government. Should we just pick up and leave them in anarchy?"  
  
"What do you suggest?" Neptune countered. "We stay and rule them until they can rule themselves? We'd be here for years. I know these people better than you do. The racial tensions and divisions on this world are deep-seeded. They're not going to disappear overnight."  
  
"All the more reason not to abandon them," Mercury argued. "The moment we leave, the tensions are going to explode, resulting in genocide or war."  
  
"You want to stay here, that's your choice. But don't forget, Earth needs you, too. The more time you spend here, the longer Earth is exposed and vulnerable."  
  
"But without someone to show them a peaceful way, they'll just fall backwards into war and oppression again. What will that accomplish?"  
  
They both turned to Serenity for a decision. Serenity was silent and thoughtful.  
  
"Neptune's right, Mercury. I hate the thought of abandoning them, but Earth does need us, too." She agonized some more. "Perhaps if there was someone to show them the way," Serenity mused.  
  
With that she glided over to Veda, the young green hair they'd met when they first arrived. Veda's eyes grew wide and she shrank back, but Serenity's aura calmed her.  
  
"Of everyone here, I sense you are the most likely candidate," Serenity said.  
  
She closed her eyes and let her head fall back. Serenity's chest began to glow. To the amazement of Veda and everybody watching, a crystal appeared from her chest and hovered in mid-air, the crystal glowing pristine silver. Veda stared at it in wonder.  
  
Then Serenity grimaced and the crystal cracked along one edge. She flinched and a sliver broke off. The sliver slowly floated over to Veda until it was inches from her. Bathed in its glow, the girl reached up almost like the sliver was commanding her, and touched it.  
  
The area exploded with a silver burst of light. When it dissipated, Veda wore a sailor fuku with a light green skirt, boots and kerchief, and a yellow bow. Her eyes slowly opened and gazed at nothing for a moment. Then she realized her transformation and gazed down at her costume in shock. Serenity seized her hands and she looked up in confusion.  
  
"You are now Sailor Ravenheim," Serenity told her. "Within you is the power of miracles. The choice is now yours. You can continue along the path of anger and hatred. Should you do that, though, your power will fade away to nothing. Or you can choose the path of peace and love for your fellow beings, black hair and green and all in between. Should you choose that path, the power within you will shine like a brilliant sun and provide many blessings upon you and your people - - all of your people." She squeezed Sailor Ravenheim's hands. "But the choice is yours. Choose wisely."  
  
With that, Serenity turned and glided back to her friends.  
  
"We've done all we can here," she told them. "Let's go home and mend our wounded."   
  
- - -  
  
Serenity was in her study. It was a small room set off from the royal chambers where she could be alone with her thoughts. At the moment she was in front of her drawing table, a computerized screen that held images drawn on it with a crystal stylus. Serenity was drawing a page of her current manga, "Crystal Girls Five". A computer would store the page on crystal until it was ready to be electronically distributed to everyone who wished to see it. Until then, she could correct the drawing electronically at any time. The computer even added lettering, which was a godsend to the still calligraphy challenged queen.  
  
"Ami Mizuno desires entry," proclaimed the computer door sensor.  
  
"Come in, Ami," Serenity smiled. She knew Ami was here with a report on the health of all the participants in the last mission. Ami was still very thorough.  
  
"I have the medical reports from the away mission to Ravenheim," Ami said, peering down her glasses at what Serenity was drawing. "Um, Serenity, don't you think you drew 'Crystal Blue' a little - - fat?"  
  
"That's the way I always draw her," Serenity replied, looking the character over.  
  
"Well she should be thinner. You did base the character on me."  
  
"Have you looked in a mirror lately?" Serenity said, smothering a grin.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"It means Makoto is a very good cook."  
  
"I'm STILL 45.5 kilos, YOUR MAJESTY, and I can provide verification if you'd like," Ami growled. Adjusting her glasses as Serenity smirked, Ami pulled up the medical reports on her personal hand-held computer.  
  
"And how is Haruka doing?" Serenity asked.  
  
"Physically she suffered no permanent injuries," Ami reported. "She'll need a month or so to firm up her muscle tone again, is all. Psychologically there doesn't seem to be any lasting trauma, thanks to you."  
  
"And Michiru?"  
  
"She'll still need several months of physical therapy and some tissue regeneration - - but not nearly as much as I first thought, thanks apparently to Hotaru. And you've cured any mental trauma she may have had as you did with Haruka. Between the two of you, you're threatening to put medical science out of business."  
  
"I didn't mean to step on your toes, Ami," Serenity replied calmly.  
  
"That's all right. The patient's welfare is the most important thing. We treated Palla-Palla for a mild concussion and Minako for a small abdominal wound. They'll be fine by tomorrow. How are you doing?"  
  
"Rested and relaxed." She noticed Ami was staring. "What are you worrying about now?"  
  
"Serenity, you chipped off a piece of the Silver Crystal. Isn't that going to affect you?"  
  
"Perhaps it will reduce the amount of power I can summon, but only to a very small degree. And it only hurt momentarily. I'm fine. Really."  
  
"OK," Ami replied doubtfully.  
  
"How's Hotaru?"  
  
"Showing no ill effects," Ami sighed, "which puzzles me. The amount of energy she expended and the rate I measured in her vital signs should have left some sort of physical trauma. Yet there's no sign of any damage, which leads me to suspect Hotaru has a reserve of untapped psychic potential that could be very large."  
  
"How large?" Serenity asked, looking up from her comic page.  
  
"Approaching the level you and Endymion are on."  
  
Serenity nodded and turned back to her page.  
  
"You don't seem very concerned," Ami said.  
  
"I'm not. If it manifests, I'll teach her how to control it."  
  
"You're not worried that it could be a potentially destructive force?"  
  
"No," Serenity smiled. "Hotaru's our friend. I trust her."  
  
Ami nodded and left. The part of her that had known Serenity for a thousand years wanted to trust her judgment of the situation, because Serenity had rarely been wrong over those thousand years. But no matter how sweet and innocent she knew Hotaru to be, the girl was still fifteen and the scientist in her couldn't dismiss the possibility of drastic consequences if something went wrong.  
  
"Thank goodness Haruka and Michiru are here now to give her some family structure," Ami mused.  
  
She was in her office downloading case files when Ves-Ves walked in. Ami glanced at her chronometer and realized the girl was here for her scheduled session.  
  
"I'm sorry," Ami apologized. "Give me a few more seconds to finish with these files." As the download finished, she glanced at Ves-Ves. "You seem more upbeat than you've been lately."  
  
"Yeah," Ves-Ves shrugged self-consciously. "It was good to get into some action again. I was kind of - - scared - - about what might happen. But it turned out OK."  
  
"That you were able to use your powers for good?"  
  
"Yeah. And I tried real hard to keep my head, you know? And I was able to, except for when I felt Pallas get knocked out."  
  
"No one's going to blame you for being upset over an injured innocent or teammate - - particularly given your close relationship with Palla-Palla."  
  
"Yeah. Venus told me that. Um, she said I could call her that now! I-I wasn't being disrespectful!"  
  
"You and Minako are on good terms again?"  
  
"Well, she's still pretty demanding - - but it's better. It's a lot better! And it doesn't seem like as many people are staring at me as they did."  
  
"That's good to hear," Ami smiled. "Now let's get back to your relationship with your father."  
  
Ves-Ves frowned at the notion of more digging into her past. But enduring this was a test of her strength. She'd been weak before and almost screwed everything up. She wasn't going to be weak again, no matter what.  
  
- - -  
  
Michiru leaned on her cane as she peered into Hotaru's bedroom. She despised needing the cane, but it wouldn't be forever so she tolerated it. Living quarters had been reconfigured so Hotaru could rejoin her adoptive parents. Already the relationship was comfortable for the girl. Michiru could see her curled up in bed, sleeping peacefully and contentedly. Seeing that made everything - - the thousand year separation, the decades of seeking out adventure and astral wonder to replace the unfulfilled wanting in her heart, even the time spend enslaved on Ravenheim - - that much easier to take. Having Hotaru back with her made her feel different. The woman pushed back a lock of green hair and searched her feelings.  
  
"It feels like home now," Michiru whispered. Her mouth pulled into a wistful smile even as her eyes misted.  
  
Easing away, Michiru hobbled out to the balcony, joining Haruka out there. Haruka was looking at the night's starry sky.  
  
"Miss it already?" Michiru asked.  
  
"Miss what? Ravenheim?" Haruka asked, askance.  
  
"No. Space. Traveling through space, dodging danger, making new discoveries, being a vagabond in the most open expanse there is?"   
  
"You know, listening to you sometimes is almost better than sex," Haruka grinned. Michiru gave her a petulant smirk and nudged her arm. "No, I don't miss it. I've kind of gotten my fill for a while." She looked back up at the stars. "Maybe someday I'll want to go back - - but not now. Besides, Hotaru needs a dad and I guess I'm as close as she's ever going to get. I can't leave my little firefly in the lurch."   
  
"Sounds like you're all the dad she's ever going to need," Michiru replied, snuggling up to Haruka's arm.  
  
"There's a lot to be said for exploring space," Haruka mused. "But there's a lot to be said for curling up at home with the two most important women in the world."  
  
They gazed at the stars for a few minutes. Then Haruka turned to Michiru with a sly look on her face.  
  
"What?" Michiru asked warily.  
  
"You know the old saying," Haruka grinned. "When you're under the stars, you have to kiss the person you're next to."  
  
"That's mistletummmpph!" Michiru started to say until Haruka captured her lips. She giggled into Haruka's mouth, then surrendered to a long, luxurious kiss.  
  
- - -  
  
"So how is it having Haruka-san and Michiru-san back in your life?" Usa queried Hotaru at breakfast the next morning. The pair was sitting with Jun-Jun and her sensible breakfast, and Palla-Palla and her huge bowl of frosted cereal.  
  
"Everything I dreamed it would be," beamed Hotaru. "I knew I missed them, but I didn't realize how much until now."  
  
"Are they here?" Jun-Jun asked.  
  
"They're at another table. I offered to sit with them, but they told me to sit with my friends. They're so understanding! I'm so glad to have them back!"  
  
Hotaru noticed Usa motioning behind her with her eyes. Then Hotaru noticed Palla-Palla trying to suppress a giggle. Mystified, she turned around.  
  
"H-Hi, Hotaru," Yutaka smiled hopefully.  
  
"H-Hi, Yutaka," Hotaru responded, feeling her cheeks flush.  
  
"I heard you were back from your mission. If I had known when you were arriving, I would have met you at the aero-pad. Are you all right?"  
  
"I'm fine, thank you," Hotaru sighed happily.  
  
"Good," grinned Yutaka. "I was kind of worried. Um, are you doing anything tonight? I thought maybe we could go out again. There's this new holo-vid playing and I think you'll like it."  
  
Hotaru was about to respond. Suddenly Haruka and Michiru appeared behind Yutaka. Haruka looked very stern, while Michiru seemed quite bemused.  
  
"Hotaru, you didn't tell us you were dating now," gasped Michiru joyfully.  
  
"Don't you think you'd better introduce us?" Haruka said menacingly.  
  
"Papa!" Hotaru hissed. "Yutaka, these are my parents, Haruka Tenou and Michiru Kaioh. This is Yutaka Mitsusuki. He lives in the palace with his family."  
  
"Um, pleased to meet you, Ma'am," Yutaka bowed to Michiru. She nodded sweetly. "Pleased to meet you, um - - Sir?" he said to Haruka, thrown both by her sex and Haruka's withering stare.  
  
Haruka turned to Hotaru. "I want to know EVERYTHING about him."  
  
"Haruka, you're scaring the poor boy to death," Michiru said, amused by the situation. She began to lead the woman away.  
  
"So why couldn't she find a nice GIRL to date?" Haruka demanded.  
  
Hotaru rolled her eyes and turned to Usa. "Maybe I'm not so glad they're back after all," she huffed, folding her arms over her chest. Usa smothered a laugh.  
  
THE END 


End file.
